Chasing the sun, Sun, 19 Sep 2021 | written by Simon
Jemma and Simon at a City, Museum, Temple, UNESCO site in Europe, Italy

It was too much. More and more people were showing up and a couple cars were blasting music pretty loud, so around 11pm we bailed and found a lovely spot by the road a bit down the hill.

In the morning we had the best encounter. We were busy doing our morning preparations around the van while people were walking down the street doing their own business. At some point a guy turned back after passing us and started saying something in Italian. I was worried he’s going to tell us off for sleeping here, but he soon switched to English to tell us that there is a free toilet by a church down the road if we want. What a sweetheart!

I was feeling a bit meh today, as I didn’t sleep too well, not sure why. But Jemma took charge of the expedition and guided us to the coolest places. We went via the Ponte San Michele towards the main attractions: Piazza dei Signori and the Basilica Palladiana. It’s a pretty spectacular building, a great example of clear and simple Renaissaince beauty of proportions and forms. We climbed up the terrace for a great view and found that the statues which adorn the balustrade are pretty weathered and have to be supported by metal structures, which actually looked amazing – as if they had weird exoskeletons. We then discovered that inside there was a great exhibition of violin entirely covered in ink images inspired by Dante’s Inferno. Jemma in particular found it very inspiring. The building itself has a great roof structure inside, and it was very interesting to compare it with the civic basilica of Padua which has not received a similar Renaissaince makeover.

There were a number of other great buildings around the Piazza dei Signori, but we didn’t see them in too much detail as the weather started to break and we had to run for shelter – we still don’t have an umbrella! The moved quickly towards the cathedral, for which Palladio made a new apse. To be honest, it looks rather weird from the outside, because it’s a oddly fitted classical form attached to a gothic building, and it’s taller than the rest. But from the inside it looks pretty great.

We then walked down the Corso Andrea Palladio towards the Palazzo Barbaran da Porto – another designed by Palladio which now houses a museum dedicated to him. The building itself isn’t particularly stunning, but the museum was certainly informative. Jemma took note of another couple villas we need to visit, and we did that soon enough.

We had some food and headed towards another Palladian design: Palazzo Chiericati, which now houses the city art gallery. To be honest, it was nothing special and we were a bit disappointed, because the exhibition obscured the architecture.

But the next stop was totally worth it. The Olympic Theatre doesn’t look like much from the outside, but the inside is amazing. The stage architecture is just fantastic – it instantly transports you into the world of ancient tragedy. Though to be honestly, I’m not sure how they play anything else than classical themed plays there… By the way, we found that the first performance in the new space, Oedipus King, was 9 hours delayed (!), with people waiting on beautiful but not terribly comfortable benches, with no toilets designed into the building. That must have been fun…

Before the weather forced us to make a move, we visited Sanctuario di Santa Corona and had a look at a weirdly cut-off Palazzo Porto (another by Palladio), and had some delicious ice cream. But at this point it was getting really wet and we decided to just head back to the Baron and move on.

Following Ania and Michal’s recommendation, we drove towards Citadella, a small late Medieval town that has fully preserved city walls. We got there after 5pm, so we had to wait until the next day to climb the walls, but we did get to visit the cathedral and walk around a bit. The town within the walls is just so tiny! It sprawls a fair bit outside, but the old fortified part you can walk around in half an hour.

Speaking of sprawl, after driving around here for a few days, we get the impression that the entirety of Notrern Italy is one massive suburban sprawl. There aren’t even any big cities, it’s just all suburbs, with one village or town ending and another beginning in the same place. An unbroken chain of small streets, houses, little centres, more houses… I wonder how much of the famous pollution in this area is caused purely by the fact that everyone needs to drive everywhere in those conditions.

Anyway, we found a parking just outside the walls and decided to stay there for the night. First thing tomorrow: city walls!