Chasing the sun, Sat, 18 Sep 2021 | written by Simon
Jemma and Simon at a Mountain, Temple, UNESCO site in Europe, Italy

We started today slow. We didn’t get it of bed until 11, spending the time on sorting photos and just chilling. A much needed break from our typical chase after the next attraction!

Throughout the morning, more and more cyclists appeared in our hilltop parking. We saw more once we started driving, too. Seems like mountain cycling in tight Lycra is the Saturday thing to do here. Quite impressive, seeing how steep it is!

We first drove towards Abbazia di Praglia – a Benedictine monastery. The only tours were in the afternoon, so we skipped that and instead went exploring ourselves. Not sure we were meant to climb the stairs towards the olive grove and vineyard, but we certainly don’t regret it, because the view was great! We visited the church then and it was OK, though nothing special.

The next stop was brief: Eremo di San Cassiano. It’s an hermitage on a sheer rock wall by small village. The path to it is only open once a month and it’s not the day, but seeing it from below was still worth it. There were also a couple churches in the village – one boring but with a very tall and skinny tower, the other a nice example of neo-Romanesque.

By the way, let me return for a moment to discussing driving in Italy. I am not sure how Google Maps calculates your ETA when guiding you to the destination, but I am used to the fact that in most places if you drive at or slightly above the speed limit, you usually get there a bit before the original estimate. Here, it’s the other way around: unless I am speeding by a fair margin, the ETA keeps getting delayed! Does Google calculate the expected time based on how long it usually takes people to drive there? Because if so, then this is a pretty strong indication that everybody speeds here, all the time! No wonder there are speed cameras every two kilometres! Not that it helped, seeing how they are all marked on Google Maps which kindly reminds you to slow down…

Anyway, the driving took us to two suburban villas next to Vicenza: Villa Valmarana ai Nani, and the famous La Rotonda. Ai Nani is pretty cute, covered in frescos by the Tiepolos – the father’s are in the main building and frankly, aren’t as nice as the much more naturalistic ones by his son covering the guest wing. The wall is guarded by a couple dozen sculptures of dwarves who are related to a sad legend and became the source of the villa’s nickname.

La Rotonda was at the same time awesome and a disappointment. I remember learning about it at history of art classes and was really looking forward to seeing it. Probably the most influencial building by Palladio, it’s all about geometric perfection and symmetry, proportions and the beauty of shapes and forms. And then Baroque happened and they covered it all in frescos and stuccos and all the crappy kitch. I mean, who the hell looked at this sublime temple of austere symmetry and though: ‘you know what this place needs? Colourful swirlies all over!’ Argh!

Also, apparently towards the end of the 19th Century the villa was pretty much abandoned and stood empty for nearly a century, with anyone walking in and stealing stuff. Thankfully not much got broken, except the frescos that got all dirty – sadly, the family that bought it decided to clean them instead of getting rid of them. Ah well. (BTW, we got a lot of this info from a very friendly and knowledgeable employee who very patiently and enthusiastically answered a lot of questions. Thank you!)

Finally, we moved towards Sanctuario della Madonna de Mount Berico, and were very surprised, twice over. First, because we expected a remote sanctuary with a view like the one we visited in Bologna, and this one is very much a busy part of the town. And second, because people were queuing outside of it! We were really confused – is it some sort of special occasion, a ceremony or something? We asked some young people on the other side of the piazza and they just said it’s a regular Saturday evening mass, it’s just a popular spot. Pretty popular indeed – the nearest free parking spot was a good five minutes walk away! Anyway, we had a sneak peek in between the masses and moved on.

Jemma is tired of all the churches, so at the end of the day I thought I’ll find something different for her: a ruin. Not some ancient one, but a ruined villa, a current derelic site that’s on the slopes of the hill leading towards the Sanctuary. We managed to get in through a hole in the fence and walked all around the incredibly overgrown mess, the collapsed ceilings, broken tiles, frescoed… I mean grafittied walls. It must have been some place for chindren, as it has ‘villa dei bambini’ written on top – perhaps an orphanage? Really fun to explore it all. I was just thankful that La Rotonda didn’t collapse to that state in the years when it was abandoned!

It was getting late and we decided to stay for the night on the terrace parking by the Sanctuary, where we have a fantastic view of the town. It’s really noisy here, especially since there is some amusement park just below, so not sure we will stay. I guess this is when earplugs get really useful!