Vicenza, Italy

The town of Vicenza lies on the main train line from Verona to Venezia. We have to change trains here often when we go west. I spent some time in Vicenza one day and discovered that it's so much more than a train stop. Aside from being a clean, pretty, yuppy-ish town, Vicenza was the home of Andrea Palladio, a famous neoclassical architect known for reviving the ancient Roman and Greek styles during the Renaissance period. Many of his villas and palazzos are still in Vicenza.

La Basilica Palladiana is probably the biggest Palladio building.

Vicenza is also home to a large park. Here is a shot looking down one of the main boulevards in the park.

Cool looking tree in the park.

Although I didn't get to see this building in person, I did manage to find a picture of it. This is Palladio's most notable work, La Villa Rotonda, which is located on the outskirts of Vicenza. Architecture students from everywhere consider Vicenza Mecca because of this building. The rotunda has a perfectly symmetric dome-in-square design with the columned entryway on each side. The loggia design is distictively Greek, while the dome in the center is Roman (Pantheon). This simple yet elegant style influenced many famous buildings including Jefferson's home, the US Capitol building, and the White House.