Day Six- Vicenza II

After a lovely breakfast at the hotel we said goodbye to Denise and Ali, who were heading back to rainy Munich, Ali's home town. The day before we had bought a ticket that includes most of Vicenza's museums and houses, so we stopped first at the archeological and natural history museum, which wasn't that exciting, but it was cool. Next was across the street to the Palazzo Leoni Montanari, which has a small collection of paintings in an extremely baroque plaster building built in 1678. The family, which had made fortune in textiles, wished to raise their standing in society with their extravagant house, and it shows! It has been enhanced by a number of owners along the way until now it is a riot of sculptural spaces that writhe and leap off the walls and moldings, with themes from classical mythology. Luckily it escaped damage in WWII and was opened as a gallery in 1999. It also houses one of the best museums of Russian Icons in Europe, but we kind of glided through that one.

Wild plaster work at the Palazzo Leoni Monanari in Vicenza

We decided to take a bit of a hike to check out a couple things across the river and up the hill, so we grabbed some food at the supermarket and headed down by the train station to eat it in the park. Then we packed up and set out for the Basilica di Monte Berico, which perches on a hill overlooking the town. We trudged up a steep covered arcade that has long been used by pilgrims making their way to the church, then enjoyed a birds eye view of Vicenza from what seemed very high. The church had a ceremony in progress, so we didn't stay long, but long enough to check out the beautiful scagliola work that covered much of its interior. After a gelato and and a drink, we set out to see two more houses, both somewhat outside of city limits. Turned out to be a bit more hiking than we had thought, but it was going through lovely wooded hills with giant stone walls lining a narrow street, every once in a while opening to a vista of vineyards and country houses on misty slopes. We finally arrived at one of the houses, and it was all worth it. The Villa Valmarana ai Nani is named for the dwarf statues (Ital.- "Nani") that line the garden walls and set the tone for this playful country getaway. 

View of Vicenza from Monte Berico. Palladio's basilica is the copper roof on the left side.

You really get a good sense of the house as it was due to the fact that it is fully furnished with period furniture from the time when the Valmarana family bought it (18th century) and commissioned the Tiepolos (father Giambattista and son Giandomenico) to fresco the interior. In fact the Valmarana family still occupies the house at times, on the top floor. It also has intact gardens that enhance the feeling of stepping back in time. The main house has awesome paintings by Tiepolo Sr., based on classical myths, and the large guest house is done up with murals of genre scenes and exotica by the younger Tiepolo. Both houses were very pleasant to wander through and photos, while not really allowed, were pretty easy to take. 

Fresco mural by Giandomenico Tiepolo in the guest house of the Villa Valmarana. 

It was the heat of the afternoon but we decided to forge on to one of Palladio's acknowledged masterpieces, the Villa Capra, or "La Rotonda" as it is known. Fortunately it was all downhill and the road turned into a cobbled footpath, again enhancing the feeling of being in another era. Unfortunately when we got to the Villa it only had another half hour open, but we paid the fee and went in anyways. The house was not open on that day, but it was still pretty cool to see how it was sited on a knoll overlooking the farms and rivers below, with long vistas and a cool breeze. The house, a very elegant architecture that has four symmetrical Ionic porticoes around a central dome, has been copied many times; no less than five houses in Britain are based directly on it, and Thomas Jefferson's Monticello was highly influenced by it. I'll just have to come back again to see Louis Dorigny's interior murals. Just as well we didn't get in, since my camera battery ran out as we were sitting on the steps of one of the porches. Would have been very frustrating to be inside and not be able to take a few.

Walking into the garden of the Villa Capra.

We were pretty tapped on the long hike back into town, but there were a number of great views along the way to help keep us going. Had a quiet evening of snacks and internet, with of course one more gelato and a stroll through the piazza.