Vicenza

Vicenza was perhaps the most attractive town/city of our holiday. Surprisingly uncrowded for a tourist centre. It is well known (among the cognoscienti!) as the home of the renaissance architect Palladio.

And our first stop was a Palladian house, the Palazzio Chericati, host of the city's art gallery.

And the gallery is not just interesting for its exhibits; one also has to admire the decor. And on that subject, well isn't this ceiling something? We are supposed to be looking at the chariot pulling the sun across the sky.

But objectively one is looking right up Apollo's bare arse.

And you get a fine view of the undersides of the horses, and so as one can graphically observe, they are indeed hung like horses. 

An extensive picture gallery of course starts with a lot of Madonna and Childs.

And some random martyrdoms

A not untypical and obviously homoerotic S&M painting of St Sebastian, boyish face, muscular near naked body, facial expression unconcerned at being shot full of arrows. There are just so many of these in every gallery in Italy, ostensibly because they were in gratitude for delivering them from the plague. But did they never think that given the number of plagues that were current he was not too good at the job of being patron saint? And that it was all just to please the frustrated lusts of the catholic clergy? But I guess anything to keep their hands off the choirboys....

In the attic/library there is a collection of smaller more modern works.

And this is the exterior of the Palladian palace. Rather marred by the dirty great crane next to it!

But with a bit of careful angling one can just squeeze the crane out of shot.

Just across the road from the palace is another very worthy attraction - the oldest indoor theatre in Europe - the Teatro Olimpico. It is still a working thetare, which can boast that its opening night was 3 March 1585!

Don't think that just because it is the oldest it is some primitive construct. It really is amazing. The stage has amazing depth.

And this is just the back of the theatre. Truly overkill in decoration.

The Chiesa di Santo Corona, somewhat unusually in northern Italy, with a Gothic, but bright Gothic, interior

And some important paintings too, like this Adoration of the Magi by Veronese.

And I think this is a Baptism of Christ by Bellini

It also contains this extraordinary seventeenth century pietra dure altarpiece. I have  particular liking for these hardstone pictures, but normally I see them as tabletops

I also love cloisters

Obviously another place I really wanted to visit was the Palladio Museum.

And of course had to round off with a visit to the duomo....

And then back to Verona for dinner and one last shot of the Flavian Arch at night.