Oh my... it's not the first time I have had some memories on Saturday, decided to write a post in the Saturday Memories community, but I published it on Sunday! And actually memories about the same city I visited this summer. With the same people even. Must be something connected with all this place/people/community/day mixture or is it just me who gets distracted or unable to do what I plan to do? A slight migraine thing and an afternoon walk longer than it was planned kicked me out of the writing time for Saturday. Not really happy that I break the rules now and publish this on Sunday...
Wait!
There are no rules in the description section that it has to be published on Saturday!! Cool! So here it comes, our visit to Vicenza in the summer of 2022.
Vicenza, a medium-sized city in the north of Italy was visited by us already for several times. We usually take here a break from driving and believe it or not, even the hotel is always the same where we book. Ok, it happened in August when we had to delay our travel back to Spain due to illness that we didn't find a room in that hotel so we went to Padua, but in July we had luck.
The interesting thing about Vicenza is that it is always cloudy or raining when we are there. And it's always summer we are there 😂
This time... it was a nice day with blue sky but just a little bit cloudy in the afternoon when we were there (though in the night it rained, I even woke up to the sound of the thunders)
As you may know from this post, we met with the Italian Hivians. Talked to them the day before from our accommodation in France, and made the plan to meet in Vicenza. They had to drive from Venice to get to that mini meet-up but I think they also liked the small excursion to Vicenza and having some hours with us. Talked to them on the phone when we arrived, took a small rest and agreed to meet in the city park.
It is a normal and ordinary park, with a lot of greenery, nothing special and nothing out of this world, though it displayed a lot of statues and artworks. Also, a fountain - without water!! As they have to save water so all the fountains are dry... 🤔
We just passed through this park and went to see the city centre and the buildings I like to observe.
In old Italian cities, we can see a lot of old churches and temples. This one is the Temple of San Lorenzo, located in the same named square, San Lorenzo. The clouds were there just to threaten a bit, but no rain came from the sky. Just warmth, so we stopped here and bought a few bottles of water in a small shop we found near there.
The interior of the same church. I liked the symmetry and the striped columns. Also, the ceiling is stunning and so bright. In France, when you enter a cathedral, you don't see so much light... the interior of them is much darker.
In the San Lorenzo square, I saw a statue...
... and interesting artwork, bronze figures challenging the laws of physics.
Another awesome building that you can see in Vicenza is the Cathedral of Santa Maria Annunziata. So unusual with that rounded shape. A bit of research had to be done, and when I saw the name of Andrea Palladio, as the one who planned the cupola, a bell rang. Of course, Andrea Palladio and his architectural influence on the buildings of northeastern Italy, especially in Vicenza and Venice.
Let's get closer to it :)
From here we continued our walk on this palladian itinerary. We saw a board that informed us about the building we can see on our path... Palazzo Valmarana, Palazzo Thiene Bonin Longare, Plazzo Porto, Palazzo Barbaran da Porto, Palazzo di Iseppo Porto, Chieso Santa Mazia Nova, Loggia del Capitaniato, Logge del Palazzo della Ragione, Palazzo Civena... {how did you like this Italian language course? 🤣}
We see a lot of palaces on the list, houses of the lords who lived in the time when Andrea Palladio was an architect of fame in the area. Vicenza is marked by his work!
We arrived at Piazza dei Signori which is the main square of the city. All around work of that noble architect from the past. These two columns give place in the top to statues, the Lion of Sant Mark and the other is called Il Redentore.
The next photo, from the same square, shows the La Basilica Palladiana and Torre di Piazza.
You see here some people working around and a scene, cameras. It happened that a rehearsal was held for a concert, and we listened to it a bit. However, it is a story for another post, as I have recorded some parts of the beautiful music we heard here :)
The parts of the scene and loudspeakers, and cameras all around. So from the square itself I can't show you a clean photo, but you can get an idea about the old buildings that are standing here for several centuries.
But getting closer I could catch this building, Chiesa di San Vincenzo (church of San Vicenzo).
A small bronze artwork detail in the square:
I found several of these figures, so in the passage by the Basilica Palladiana too. I loved this one.
We moved forward, and guess what. I saw again some figures :) I think I started to pay attention to smaller details in the cities. The old historical buildings are cool and have a lot of value, but these small figures give the impression that exists something else than just buildings in this city. There are people, who like to create and play, like the children in this next scene:
Still, more and more buildings are what we saw that afternoon before we found the place where we had our dinner. So, be prepared to see this:
... and more churches...
..and more facades...
...and more squares...
...and more passages...
Well, I think you would run away if I continue with all these squares, passages and facades, so I think it's time to finish this post about the memories of one visited city this summer. Just a last photo, showing a hall from a private house/garden where the main door was open so I ventured myself and entered there, although there was a sign: No trespassing, private.
:D
Vicenza it was, as you could already remember from here, and yes, if we drive again by it, probably we will stop again to rest in the same city and same hotel!
