Morning in Venice, Afternoon in Vicenza

We woke up in Venice and went to bed in Vicenza today.

This morning we packed up and checked out of our hotel in Venice. It was a beautiful sunny morning, so we took our time walking towards the Rialto Bridge. Katrina had more pictures to take.


This is one of many reasons why life in Venice is expensive. Everything must be brought in by boat and delivered by hand trucks. Its a very labor intensive process.


Venice police

We took a vaporetto from the Rialto Bridge to the train station, then caught the train back to Mestre, where our car was parked. We decided it would be more interesting to drive to Vicenza on backroads than on the autostrada. We weren't in a hurry.


We stopped at this roadside pizzeria. I wanted a pizza for lunch. We soon found out that lunch was a fixed menu. We were served a great lunch of pasta con pomodoro, and a grilled pork chop with lime juice. Very tasty! I took a picture of this sign because of the specialty....horse. Horse meat is easily found in most supermarkets here. It is a very deep dark red lean red meat. I've never tried it and I'm not sure I want to.


Smart Car dealership. My model train catalog offers a model of this dealership, but I never thought it was a real building, until now.

We arrived in Vicenza early in the afternoon. Vicenza is a pilgrimage for aspiring architects. It is the city of Andrea Palladio, a 16th century architect. Vicenza was a part of the Venetian empire, but the people did their best to make their town a bit different than the traditional Venetian style.

After checking into the hotel, we wandered the old town and its pedestrian zone. Like many other pedestrian zones in towns all over Italy, this one is full of high end fashion stores, cafes and restaurants.



Oregon store...or the sea and mountains. Hmmm. I've never seen Oregonians dress like this. Well, maybe in Blodgett.


Andrea Palladio


Architecture designed by Andrea Palladio, 16th century Renaissance architect who gave us the Palladian style.


Colorful architecture


Very cool scooter. I want one!


Vicenza pedestrian zone


British fashion


Aperitivo in Piazza dei Signori.

Also in Vicenza, Villa la Rotonda. Thomas Jefferson's Monticello was inspired by Palladio's Rotonda. We did not visit this villa, but we did spot it on the way into town.

We had dinner at Antico Ristorante 'agli Schioppi'. What a great meal. Katrina had basil risotto and I had tortilloni's stuffed with fresh fish. Very tasty. We also shared a very good bottle of red wine. Oh, and for dolce, we shared a bowl of peaches and cream in wine sauce...YUM!