What to do and see in Province of Vicenza, Veneto: The Best Things to do Good for a Rainy Day

Andrea Palladio’s last work and masterpiece, the Olympic Theatre was commissioned in February 1580 by the Accademia Olimpica, a society of mixed social classes founded in Vicenza in 1555 for cultural and scientific purposes and to which Palladio himself belonged. Construction began in May 1580, but Palladio died suddenly on 19 August of that year so did not see its completion. After various, complex delays, the theatre was completed five years later and opened on 3 March 1585 with the memorable staging of Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus. The theatre is reached by way of the odeon and anti-odeon, two large rooms designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi and decorated respectively with frescoes by Francesco Maffei portraying divinities and allegorical figures (c. 1637) and a monochrome frieze of considerable documentary interest (c. 1595). This depicts theatrical productions presented by the Accademia before construction of the Olimpic Theatre (Amor costante, Sophonisba) and shows or events held in the new theatre (Oedipus the King, the diplomatic mission of Japanese envoys). Palladio designed a monumental scenae frons within an enclosed space intended to simulate classical theatres in the open air. It is flanked by two wings or stage doors and a semi-elliptical cavea with thirteen tiers, ending in a columned exedra at the top, partly open and partly with niches in the wall. Statues of the academicians who commissioned the theatre, dressed in classical costume, occupy the niches and plinths of the structure. A series of splendid bas reliefs showing stories of Hercules by Ruggero Bascape occupies the highest row. Wooden perspective scenery of the streets of Thebes runs back from the three openings in the scenea frons. This was designed by Scamozzi for the opening performance of Oedipus Tyrannus and has remained as a permanent feature

The project of the Foundation - a private non-profit organization that is open to the public – arosefrom the attention and sensitivity towards the culture of design and architecture that have always driven Bisazza. The Bisazza Foundation has a dual vocation: it is intended as an exhibition space to bring together works and installations by contemporary designers and architects who, over the course of the last 20 years, have created original applications for mosaics; it is also proposed as a cultural subject in continuous interaction with other international institutions for the purposes of hosting projects and exhibitions of design and architecture, not necessarily associated with mosaics.

This marvelous bridge made in wood, named Ponte Degli Alpini, is dated from 1209, although it was rebuilt some times along the centuries. It is also called Ponte Vecchio, and the view one can enjoy from it, over the Brenta river and facing the Alpes during the Winter, is simply great !

The Palazzo Chiericati has been the historic home of the Civic Museum since 1855 and now houses the city's collections of paintings, sculptures and applied arts from the thirteenth to the twentieth centuries. A masterpiece of Palladio's early maturity (1550), the building not only has decorations from that period but also holds important documents on Vicenza's art history. The Museum of Palazzo Chiericati reopened the Palladian wing on December 2013, after the restoration works. On the main floor, the visitor can enjoy the works of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, contemporary to the construction of the building. The attic hosts the Bequest of Marquis Giuseppe Roi: his personal collection of paintings, drawings and engravings from the fifteenth to the twentieth century, set in a charming display of house-museum. On the ground floor the visitor can admire, in a temporary exhibition, a selection of masterpieces of the collection not currently on display: Paolo Veneziano, Memling, Montagna, Fogolino, Sansovino, Tintoretto, Maffei and Pittoni. In the basement are located the works donated to the museum by the sculptor Nereo Quagliato.

Palazzo Sturm, dal cui belvedere si può godere di un’impareggiabile panorama sul fiume Brenta e sul Ponte Vecchio, fu donato al Comune di Bassano dal barone Giovanni Battista Sturm von Hirschfeld nel 1943. La preziosa dimora voluta da Vincenzo Ferrari, importante industriale e commerciate di sete, venne edificata verso la metà del XVIII secolo. L’edificio conta oltre settanta stanze distribuite su sette livelli e decorate dal pittore veronese Giorgio Anselmi nel 1760 circa. I soggetti mitologici e allegorici, rappresentati con un gusto che richiama la maniera dei cosiddetti trionfi barocchi romano-bolognesi, alludono alle imprese commerciali ed economiche della manifattura della famiglia Ferrari. Attualmente il palazzo ospita il Museo della Ceramica Giuseppe Roi, che raccoglie collezioni di ceramiche antiche, il Museo della Stampa Remondini, dedicato alla tipografia e calcografia della celebre famiglia di imprenditori grafici.