The Rough Guide to Venice and the Veneto

A few of these villas are of interest only to cognoscenti like those who overrun
Vicenza during September’s architecture conference, but several – such as
the Villa Rotonda and the Tiepolo-painted Villa Valmarana, both on the
outskirts – make an impact on the uninitiated and the expert alike. And while
Palladianism is the region’s distinctive style, it doesn’t monopolize the scene.
Some of Vicenza’s Gothic houses would look fine in Venice, and the Villa
Porto-Colleoni at Thiene is as colourful a pile as you’ll find in the Veneto.
Verona is perhaps best known to English speakers as the setting for Shakespeare’s
Romeo and Juliet, and supposed sites of their courtship are scattered
over the city. Authentic remnants of the city’s long and varied past are what
make the place so memorable, though – in particular, the remains of the
Roman period. Of these, the superb Arena is the most prominent, followed
by the Teatro Romano and various archways and gates. Also high on the list
of things to see are the monuments left by the Scaligeri family, the most celebrated
rulers of medieval Verona. Their tombs are masterpieces of Gothic art,
and scarcely less impressive is the Castelvecchio, once the Scaligeri fortress
and now home of Verona’s civic museum.
More good-quality wine is produced in the Veneto than in any other area
of Italy, and the region’s most productive vineyards – Soave, Valpolicella and
Bardolino – lie within the hinterland of Verona. Also easily reached from the
city is Lago di Garda, on the western edge of the Veneto – a resort as popular
with southern Austrians and Germans as it is with the Veronese.
Vicenza
The evolution of VICENZA follows a course familiar in this part of northern
Italy: development under Imperial Rome, destruction by Attila, Lombard
occupation, attainment of a degree of independence followed by struggles
with neighbouring towns, rule by the Scaligeri of Verona in the fourteenth
century and then absorption into the Venetian empire in 1404, after which
its fortunes shadowed those of the ruling city. The numerous surviving
fifteenth-century palaces of Vicenza reflect its status as a Venetian satellite,
with facades reminiscent of the Canal Grande, but in the latter half of the
sixteenth century the city was transformed by the work of an architect who
owed nothing to Venice but a lot to ancient Rome, and whose rigorous yet
flexible style was to influence every succeeding generation – Andrea di Pietro
della Gondola, alias Palladio.
The city’s architectural heritage – which has earned it a listing as a UNESCO
World Heritage Site – brings in a fairly steady stream of visitors, but the
tourist revenue is just the icing on the cake. Europe’s largest centre for the
production of textiles, and the focus of Italy’s “Silicon Valley”, modern
Vicenza is a very sleek city indeed – by some estimates, one of the country’s
richest half-dozen. The wealth isn’t as ostentatious as in Milan, for example,
but if you took the banks and the clothes shops out of the centre’s main street
you’d be left with next to nothing, while the lower storey of the city’s signature
building – the Basilica – has become a corral of jewellers. The discreet
Vicentine obsession with style pervades even the local clergy, who recently
invited Italy’s designers to improve the look of their priestly attire, prompting
entries from big-league names such as Krizia and Laura Biagiotti. Asked what
sort of outfit he would be likely to approve, Monsignor Don Giancarlo Santi
Vicenza, Verona and around
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