Sunday, December 15, 2013

#512 - Benvenuti a Vicenza !

While in Italy last month, we (+ Jenny & Steven) also visited Vicenza on a day trip from Verona. A delightful, small city between Milan and Venice, few places are stamped by the genius of a single person as is Vicenza. And that one person was "Palladio", a.k.a. Andrea di Pietro della Gondola, the greatest architect of the Renaissance. A native of Padua, he came to Vicenza in 1524 because the local Venetian aristocracy wanted splendid new buildings to celebrate the recovery from the devastation of the long war with the Scaligers of Verona, whom they defeated. Palladio's trademark was colonnades and his style was adopted by architects in England and America in 16th & 17th centuries. So if these buildings look like ones in London or Boston or New York, remember this is where it all began
. we had lunch at a salumeria at the end of the Piazza. It looked good and was busy so we sat outside. But the service was terrible and then the sun went off it after a while making it unpleasantly cold, and memorable - for the wrong reasons

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