Vicenza
Your typical tourist to Italy is unfamiliar with Vicenza; it might have a small section in tour guides, but unless you are an architectural buff (which I am not), you probably won’t visit this city. Unless you come to visit us. Although we don’t live right in Vicenza, it is where I tell people we live. I guess we’re in a suburb—or the Italian version of a suburb—of the city. It’s in northern Italy, right between Venice and Verona. The population is around 120,000, so it is smaller than Boise, Idaho or Columbus, Georgia.
Even though we’ve been here for three months, this past weekend was our first family trip to downtown Vicenza. And it is pretty cool. If feels really old. I know that sounds silly, but it feels like I am somewhere so much cooler than Boise or Columbus (and I like Boise and Columbus—I’m really not trying to sound snarky) because this place has buildings and statues and walls that are older than our country. It’s something I’ve heard before and knew about, but being in it and feeling it is different than knowing and thinking about it.
We just spent about three hours walking around the main section of town that surrounds the street Corso Palladio (Palladio was a 16th-century Renaissance architect—lots of Greek-like columns. This year is the 500th anniversary of his birth, so there are celebrations for his work, which I hope to learn more about as I live here). We didn’t go into any of the sights. There was a Festival of Europe in the main piazza, so we did stroll through that—lots of meat and cheese (and T got a little apron because he likes to help in the kitchen—and he is more enjoyable to walk around with when there’s something in it for him).
On one end of the main drag is the Teatro Olimpico or Olympic Theater, which, again, I haven’t been inside, but we did walk around the
outside grounds and
looked at the statues.
At the other end is this tower
left from when Vicenza was a walled city—which I think is so cool. (Lots of businesses around here have castello—castle—in their name.)
Here are some of the pictures along the main stretch:
These three pics are from Piazza dei Signori,
where the festival was.
This church is called the Church of Santa Corona (the Holy Crown) and claims to have a thorn from Jesus' Crown of Thorns. I haven't been inside yet, but hope to visit in the next few weeks.
Just a sculpture I liked.
This post is not quite as visually pleasing as I'd like. Just getting this done was hard! Hopefully, I'll get better with practice.
posted by travelingidahogirl @ 1:11 PM
4 Comments:
If it's hard to post this on facebook, maybe you could just post a link to it and let us know when you post here. I think it's nice to look at here because this site isn't cluttered.
I love that feeling in Europe of being in places that weren't even new in Shakespeare's day. Living in the West, I find it hard to get a perspective on history from the buildings and layout of towns. We tear everything down when it gets old, often because it wasn't built to last to start with. After a trip abroad, I come home seeing how architecturally impoverished we are. Sure we have good shopping and plenty of place to park, but our towns have grown up randomly, and our cities have sprawled. We lack knowledge of even the recent past, have no idea who designed our churches, courthouses, and parks. We seldom know the names of artists from our regions--probably because those artists nearly starved and moved away. Even now when a community tries to invest in art, many complain about the cost of these "frills" that no one "needs." In Europe, people invested in art that fed the spirits of generations and attracted visitors from around the world and across the centuries. They took a longer view than we seem capable of doing here and now.
Ok, yes. You just said what I was feeling so much more succinctly and accurately than what I could do.
I'm sure I'm just caught up in the moment--feeling hopeful in the calm before the storm--but maybe we can begin to take a longer view in the next few years. Maybe we can operate on something other than fear. Maybe art will florish. Even in a bad economy, people can recognize the value of truth and beauty, right? I think of the incredible photographs, the art in public buildings that came out of the Great Depression.
like I said, maybe it's just that whole afterglow thing going on. Whatever it is, I hope it lasts. I've smiled all day.
We enjoy all of your travels. How great to have all of this history and culture at your fingertips. Hope that we can come take the adventure one day while you are still there to be our guide. I've tried to pass this on to your grandparents but with the holidays I've not done too well. We are looking forward to more travel and updates shortly. Keeping your family in our prayers.
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