Page 175 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Venice & The Veneto

VICENZA  173

famous play. Notable paintings
include Giovanni Bellini’s
Baptism of Christ (c.1500–5)
and Paolo Veronese’s Adoration
of the Magi (1573). In the
cloister the Museo Naturalistico-
Archeologico exhibits natural
history and archaeology.
R San Lorenzo
Open 10:30am–noon, 3:30–6pm daily
(from 4pm in summer), 3:30–6pm on
public hols.
This church’s portal is a splendid
example of Gothic stone carving, The elegant Villa Rotonda, most famous of all Palladio’s works
decorated with figures of the
Virgin and Child, and St Francis basilica on top of the hill the figures of dwarfs, which give
and St Clare. The frescoes inside features shady colonnades with this building its alternative
are damaged, but there are fine many shrines along the route. name – ai Nani (at the Dwarfs).
tombs. The cloister, to the north, The Baroque basilica was built Inside the villa, the walls are
is a flower-filled haven of calm. in the 15th century and is covered with frescoes by Tiepolo,
dedicated to the Virgin who in which pagan gods float on
appeared during the 1426–8 clouds watching scenes from
plague to declare that Vicenza the epics of Homer and Virgil.
would be spared. In the separate Foresteria (guest
Many pilgrims still travel house), the frescoes with themes
to the lovely church, where of peasant life and the seasons,
Bartolomeo Montagna’s moving painted by Tiepolo’s son,
Pietà fresco (1572) makes an Giandomenico, are equally deco-
impact within the ornate interior. rative but more earthily realistic.
Other attractions include a fossil The villa can be reached by a
collection in the cloister, and 10-minute walk from the basilica
Veronese’s fine painting The on Monte Berico. Head downhill
Supper of St Gregory the Great along Via M d’Azeglio to the
(1572) in the refectory. The large high-walled convent on the
canvas was cut to ribbons by right where the road ends, then
The beautiful cloister of the church bayonet-wielding soldiers during take the Via San Bastiano.
of San Lorenzo the revolutionary outbursts of
1848 and painstakingly restored. P Villa Rotonda
E Palazzo Leoni Montanari Via della Rotonda 45. Tel 0444 32
Contra’ Santa Corona 25. Tel 800 57 88 P Villa Valmarana 17 93. Villa: Open mid-Mar–4 Nov:
75. Open 10am–6pm Tue–Sun. & Via dei Nani 2. Tel 0444 32 18 03. Open Wed & Sat. & Garden: Open 10am–
= ∑ gallerieditalia.com 10am–6pm Tue–Sun (Nov–mid-Mar: noon, 3–6pm Tue–Sun (5 Nov–mid-
This Baroque building was 10am–noon, 2–4pm Sat & Sun). Mar: 10am–noon, 2:30–5pm Tue–Sun).
completed around 1720, Closed 12:30–3pm Tue, Thu & Fri & & ∑ villalarotonda.it
commissioned by Giovanni ∑ villavalmarana.com With its regular, symmetrical
Leoni Montanari, who had made The wall alongside the Villa forms, this is the epitome of
his fortune producing and selling Valmarana, built in 1688 by Palladio’s architecture and the
cloth. Today the Palazzo houses Antonio Muttoni, is topped by most famous of all his villas,
an art gallery renowned for its being the most widely copied.
collections of Venetian paintings The design is simple yet
and Russian icons. satisfying, as is the contrast
betw een the green lawns, white
R Monte Berico walls and terracotta roof tiles.
Basilica di Monte Berico. Tel 0444 55 Built between 1550 and 1552,
94 11. Open 6am–12:30pm, 2:30– it has inspired lookalikes in
7:30pm (Nov–Feb: to 6pm). cities as far away as Delhi and
Monte Berico is the green, St Petersburg. Fans of
cypress-clad hill to the south Don Giovanni will recognize
of the city to which wealthy locations used in Joseph Losey’s
Vicenzans once escaped in the 1979 film. The villa can be
summer to enjoy cooler air and reached by bus from town, or
bucolic charms. The wide The Baroque hilltop church, the on foot, following the path that
avenue linking the city to the Basilica di Monte Berico passes the Villa Valmarana.

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