North Italy holiday: Vicenza 7-9 June

the Villa Valmarani ai Nani, the fresco in the entrance hall made byTiepolo

Wednesday, 8 June

We started exploring the city with the Chiesa di S. Corona, which is situated in the same street as our hotel. What an amazing amount of art inside this church, designed by Palladio.

left Giovanni Bellini's masterpiece the baptism of Christ

Altar piece made of marble and inlaid gemstones in the Cappella Maggiore

right below: the last supper made of inlaid gemstones

so many great fresco's on the walls of this church

 
Next stop is the famous Teatro Olimpico designed by Andrea Palladio. In 1580 Palladio, 72 yrs old, was commissioned by the Olympic Academy, the cultural forum of which he himself was a part, to prepare this building in Vicenza. The theater was his last work as Palladio prepared the design a few months before his death, and did not see it realized. 

Lunch time. On our way to the Teatro Olimpico we had spotted Gastronomia Il Ceppo, which also served the food they sold upstairs in their shop, downstairs in the cellar/restaurant. They also had an extensive collection of wines. 

the bistro and the salumeria of Il Ceppo, a great choice

tasting local dessert wines 

After our lovely lunch, we visited the Palazzo Leoni Montanari, which happened to be situated in the palazzo next to our hotel. 

very very baroque interior, not really our taste 

walking in the rain 

a light dinner at restaurant Tira Tardi

*****   *****  *****

Thursday, 9 June

After leaving our hotel, we visited two famous villa's which Palladio designed, before heading for Verona. 



Villa la Rotonda, a very symmetric building, was closed, however, the garden was open for visitors. Loads of great smelling roses, that were pruned by the gardener, who gave me a a rose. 

We walked up to Villa Valmarani ai Nani, which was not far away (lots of villa's in that neighbourhood). This villa was open for public and we admired the great fresco's on the walls of the guesthouse made by father and son Tiepolo.
Great smelling roses and jasmine. The jasmine we encounter everywhere during this trip. It's definitely jasmine blossoming time; love it!

villa Valmarani ai Nani

Dido and Aeneas by Tiepolo

 

there's more in the garden than flowers

 to be continued

North Italy holiday:visiting Padova - 7 June

Capella degli Scrovegni with frescos by Giotto in Padova

Tuesday, 7 June

The sun was shining and it promised to be a very warm day. 

After breakfast in the garden of Villa Zane in Treviso, and packing the car (including all the boxes of wine, which we placed in a garage on the premises the other day), we went to Padova. We had reserved tickets onlne for a slot at 16.00 hrs at the Capella degli Scrovegni a while ago. Nowadays you have no choice but to buy way upfront. 

breakfast in the beautiful garden. A good start of the day. 

:-)

After fetching our tickets for the Capella we wanted to see a bit more of Padova and started with a visit to the church of the Eremitani, which belongs to the complex where the Capella is part of too. Beautiful fresco's, phew amazing.

the fresco on the right clearly shows the damage done during world war II

church of the Eremitani

drinks at the posh cafe Pedrocchi (classic temple). Aperol and chips is becoming sort of a standard 'lunch' for P.

yummie ham and cheese

aww, soo many different kinds of fresh mozzarella de buffalo

palazzo del Capitano at the piazza del Signori.

At 4 o'clock sharp we, and the other 23 persons that had a ticket for that time slot, were allowed inside the building in front of the capella.
A video was shown (English and German subtitles) about the Capella in an airconditioned room.
After 15 minutes we were allowed inside the capella where we had 15 minutes to admire the famous Giotto fresco's and make pictures.
It was impressive.

After all this culture we left Padova and went to our home for 2 nites in Vicenza, the Relais Santa Corona. 
A lovely palazzo in a quiet street in the middle of Vicenza. We hope the receptionist gave the local police our license plate number coz the area was restricted to residents only and video monitored. We'll see when we get home.

our room is the one with the balcony :-)

We had made a reservation for a parking place at the hotel. Parking the car was rather complicated. We didn't use the car elevator shown in the picture above after all and parked the car in the small garage next door.

We strolled through the centre and had a drink at the piazza dei Signori. This evening was still warm and dry, tomorrow it will rain. An ideal evening to hang around.

to be continued

North Italy holiday: Treviso 6 June

Monday, 6 June
Today we had to leave Sud Tirol/Alto Adige and move on. However, we will return here for the great wines and the relaxing atmosphere. 
But new interesting areas are waiting for us. First we travel through the scenic Dolomites. 

We definitely aren't the only ones at the Manghen pass (2047m): 90% bikers  

This is our home for this nite: Villa Zane, near Treviso. The owner and his family still live here, he rents only 3 rooms to guests, to keep the intimate atmosphere. 
The garden is simply purrrfect, our room a bit small and rustic (hardly any electricity points to load phones, laptop, etc). Oh well, one cannot have it all.

 

We visit Treviso town: it's very warm today (30 C) so we walk from shade to shade.
One of the highlights of Treviso is the San Nicolo Dominican church, which has many wonderful frescos. Couldn't stop making photos. 

 frescos in the San Nicolo (on the left S. Christopher, the saint of all the travellers and top right San Nicolo (i.e. our Sinterklaas)

soo many awesome frescos had to include in this blog post :-) 

 Treviso is a small city with several rivers and a lot of bridges: little Venice.

selfie 

We had dinner at Trattoria Caprese, which is situated in the university area. My pasta wasn't what I expected it to be. When I told the waiter that I didn't like their pasta con vongole They replaced it with a version that was indeed good, however, I already finished eating by then

Palazzo dei Trecento, next to the Piazza dei Signori. We will have a drink at the cafe in the background.

at bar Beltrame. And I definitely do NOT want to be on a picture!

A large group of people is eating pizza's next door with children playing on the piazza like Peter did when he was their age: running, cycling and moving in all directions with all kind of competitions. Fun to watch.

Our home at nite.

to be continued