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Vicenza, Italy
And so I raise my glass to symmetry, to the second hand and its accuracy
Tonight's slideshow takes us to Vicenza and the home base of Andrea Palladio, one of the world's great architects and one whose influence can be seen just about everywhere. If this building looks familiar but you've never heard of Palladio, it's because of all of those people who ripped him off, er, I mean were inspired by him. Yes. Inspired.
Villa Capra (or Villa Rotonda as it's more commonly known) is open to the public on two days a week, but only on Wednesdays from 10am to 12pm and then 3pm to 6pm will they actually let you inside. And when they finally do, you're watched at every turn by suspicious docents fiercely guarding the villa's no photography policy. It's a bit of a shame since the interior dome is far more colorful than you might imagine, and inside is where you really start to understand the genius of Palladio. The building is perfectly symmetrical, what you see here is what you'll see on the other three sides. And while they won't let you stand dead center under the dome (it's fenced off to protect the 500 year old floor mosaics), you can stand on the side cross axes wherever you would like. Standing there, every door lines up in all four directions and then they all line up with windows that then all line up with exterior statues and the landscape. The experience is a little hard to describe but I'll give it a try anyway. It is somewhere between sublime and perfection. Maybe sublerfection. Or perhaps perflime.
If you hate Palladio (someone out there must) then you should stay the hell away from Vicenza. He had designed buildings and villas all over the place (explaining the sole reason for the city's UNESCO World Heritage status), there is a statue of him in the main square and the main pedestrian street is named after him. Even the wifi password at the hotel was PALLADIO, which might not be all that unique or secure of a password in Vicenza when you start to think about it.
If Villa Rotonda is Palladio's most famous building in Vicenza (and it most certainly is), then the Teatro Olimpico is his most second famous. At the end of Corso Palladio, it was one of his last completed buildings and is extremely unexpected inside. The stage has arches that lead to a forced perspective perfect (though not perflime) Palladian city underneath a dark blue dusk sky. The effect is impressive although it's hard to imagine the permanent set used for anything except a play that takes place in a perfect Palladian 16th Century city. It's hard to imagine this as a great venue for the touring company of The Lion King, if you know what I mean.
The slideshow abruptly leaves Vicenza but stays nearby in the Veneto to go to Verona. Apparently everyone in that part of Italy just loves the letter V.
Like many Italian cities, Verona has layers and layers of history. This first picture shows Piazza della Erbe, Verona's market square that was once the location for the city's Roman Empire era forum. Even the 700 year old fountain pictured here isn't historic enough, it also includes salvaged elements a millennium older. These layers all end up working well together to make Verona an especially gracious place, maybe not a spectacular first tier must see city, but definitely a wonderful surprise that is a lot deeper than you might expect.
Verona's Castelvecchio (which means "old castle" in Italian) is in fact an old castle. Verona had their own powerful family in the Middle Ages (the Scaligeri) and they not only ruled the city but also built buildings everywhere they could. They're especially easy to pick out since the Scaligeris had a signature design element, weird brick crenellations with little pointy ends. This design element is everywhere in Verona and pretty much nowhere else and remains (once you start noticing it) really hard to miss.
Castelvecchio today is a really fun museum that was renovated inside by the mythical Carlo Scarpa, adding another wonderful and totally modern layer to the old castle. The collection is historic and interesting enough, but for me the magic of the place is the conflict between the modern and the not so modern. But of course none of that is shown in this picture. Instead we're looking at the museum's ramparts walk just moments before a pretty severe thunderstorm swept through Verona- a reminder that it can rain anywhere, even in fair Verona.
While Vicenza has statues of local hero Palladio, Verona is not be outdone with its own statue of local hero (and Inferno fan) Dante. Although the phrase "local hero" might be a bit misleading. Dante spent six good years of his life in Verona, basically hiding out after some political intrigue in other far more important parts of Italy. Still, any city that can claim six years of Dante's life is more than justified to put up a statue honoring him, and this one was put up in the 1800s when Verona was part of Austria but still clinging to what made it Italian.
As for the other statue in the background of this picture, I have absolutely no idea who he's supposed to be, although it's likely that he's still resentful of the new guy on the square that still gets all of the attention.
