Our story begins and ends in one of the most significant private palaces built by Palladio and Unesco heritage. Here, in the heart of the historic centre, you will pick up your Palladian E-Bike and begin your travelling journey through history, accompanied by your excellent Cicero.

The history of Vicenza as we see it today is often, really, the history of Palladio. It could only begin, here, with a mention of his mentor, whose birthplace is right here in Corso Fogazzaro, the starting point of your journey. Giangiorgio Trissino, one of the finest intellectuals of the 16th century, was able to see the genius in the young Palladio, and introduce him to the very rich Vicenza society of the time, opening the doors to the transformation of the city and the birth of an architectural movement that still persists ... this stage you will discover how, and what an extraordinary relationship of respect and friendship linked these two greats of the Renaissance.

The first Renaissance palace in the city and Palladio's first private city work, created with great enthusiasm only two years after the beginning of his "higher education in architecture." A stage in which to fully appreciate the budding but not immature talent of a Genius timeless...

The Ponte Furo and the view it offers to the passage will frame the story of how the myth of Palladio was born, how it was introduced to its first clients, many of whom will later become sponsors and friends, supporting its rise to its full realization. and not without twists ... From here, a few rides will take you to contemplate one of the most hidden and unexpected treasures of Vicenza: the site where it was built in the first century. B.C. its Roman Theater, a structure capable of hosting 5,000 spectators. You will retrace the steps of Palladio to explore its archaeological remains, hidden from view by the buildings built on site over time, which allowed the architect to map the original structure and study in depth the mastery of the Romans in the city ...

The traces of a legacy, that of Palladio, immediately permeated the very identity of the city even beyond its passage. Along the road to the Rotonda - one of the most exciting stops on this route - you will be able to pass the wait admiring the Arco delle Scalette, a truly distinctive feature of Vicenza, particularly dear to its inhabitants. Clearly inspired by Palladio, it was attributed to the great architect from Vicenza but without certainty, and could indeed have been built after his death ...

For almost everyone, the greatest Palladian masterpiece. Thanks to the freedom that Paolo Almerico granted him, the architect was in fact able to create a pure work, in which the magnificence of man's intellect could shine, according to his highest ideal. It was the perfect location, the perfect client, the perfect setting, it was the perfect moment in the history of Palladio, as a man and as an artist. The result was what was not just a house, but almost a mysterious temple created to host the sacred discussion of enlightened men on philosophy, theology, politics, their ancient cultural heritage and their highest goals ...

Before finishing this quick excursus outside the city and returning to the historic centre, your Cicero Palladiano will not miss the opportunity to introduce you to one of the jewels of the early 18th century in Vicenza, the result of the legacy of Andrea Palladio and its fruits in the centuries to come. Neoclassical architecture owes a lot to the city of Palladio, and in the splendid Villa Valmarana ai Nani - a work which was also frescoed by a Tiepolo at the height of his artistic career - its premises are already evident ...

The most beautiful view of the city, framed by its enchanting mountains. This view from the terrace of Monte Berico will introduce you to Vicenza from above, introducing you to a bird's eye view in the urban context of Palladian architecture in the historic centre, that orderly labyrinth that awaits you in the next stages of this tour ....

Palazzo Chiericati, also Unesco heritage, belonged to Gerolamo Chiericati, one of the first, fascinating supporters of Palladio, together with Giangiorgio Trissino and Giovanni Alvise Valmarana, helping him to obtain the first public work of Vicenza, the loggias of the Palazzo della Ragione. The Palazzo testifies to a Palladio grateful to his noble friend, and who will repay a few years later by suggesting him to seize an extraordinary opportunity: not one of the many palaces on the main road, but the scenic backdrop of the landing in Vicenza, naturally from Venice Serenissima, on the Bacchiglione river ... Inside, today the civic museum collects a collection of priceless works of Venetian art: Tintoretto, Veronese, Sansovino and many others.

Everything was accomplished here, in this final act that consecrated the genius of Palladio, delivering his gift to history in Vicenza, to his families, to Venice, to Art. With the Academy that the architect had helped to found several years earlier, he had obtained from the city the old prisons of the Castello del Territorio. He was seventy-one years old and was about to build the first stable and covered theatre in the world. Brilliant in the architectural and scenic solutions, and hypnotic in its atmosphere ... the magical illusion of an ideal world that the Olimpico offers to the visitor echoes the dream of Palladio not only for his adopted city but for the life itself of the Humanity...

From the Ponte degli Angeli, passing through Palazzo Angaran and Borgo S. Pietro, your guide Palladiano will be able to introduce you to that fascinating story of alliances and intrigues that led to the Reformation which also involved Renaissance Vicenza, partly tinged with Calvinism. A story that will also involve Palladio in some way, above all thanks to his friendships with the Angarano family, which will begin here and will have its dramatic implications in the next stage of your itinerary ...

A quick passage to the place where the Convent of Aracoeli once stood, even before the baroque church that can be admired today. It was the scene of a shocking twist in the story of Bianca Nievo Angaran, poetess, intellectual and wife of that Giacomo Angaran to whom Palladio dedicated his first two Architectural Books. One of those extraordinary female figures of the Renaissance who paid dearly for her independence, refinement and freedom of thought ...

Originally owned by the Capra family as La Rotonda, adjacent to one of their buildings in that Contrà San Marco that you will cross in your next stop, here we are in the splendid green lung of Vicenza. Purchased by the Querini family, thanks to the story of your guide you can imagine it when it housed a "moraro", a mulberry plantation that fueled the rich Vicenza silk trade. An ancient business that made Vicenza a pole of contact and exchanges with the whole of Europe, a vocation rooted in the city's DNA and which continues today, not only in the textile sector.

The ancient Temple of Santa Corona is a precious treasure chest of history and art, which offers the visitor its famous Bellini altarpiece and the Naturalistic and Archaeological Museum. But it is also, like every Vicenza stone, part of the history of Palladio, and in particular of its epilogue. The Temple housed the sepulchre of many of the most illustrious Vicentines of the past, and the Valmarana friends wanted the one who would remain the most illustrious artist linked to the city to rest here ...

In the nerve centre of Vicenza, two capital works of Palladio face each other, embracing the traveller who enters Piazza dei Signori. On the one hand, the Basilica, the most important public work in the city that adopted Palladio, chose him for this construction among the most brilliant minds of architecture then operating, such as Sansovino, Sanmicheli or Giulio Romano. Here the story of the collaboration and friendship between Palladio and Alvise Valmarana, Gerolamo Chiericati and the mentor Giangiorgio Trissino also reaches its peak ... Only years later, now old, now "Venetian", in front of his Basilica under construction, Palladio was also commissioned to build the Loggia del Capitanio. By placing Venice in front of Vicenza, he managed to represent them in their harmonious proximity, as if the dominant, glorious and attentively present capital observed the families of the Vicentine intelligence gathered in the Council ...

A palace in the city centre, right at the height of the ancient Roman forum on the major road. The Thiene were the aspiring princes of Vicenza, those who had contributed to delivering the city to Venice more than a century earlier. Very wealthy, they needed the most sumptuous palace of all, above their friends Da Porto, above the Valmarana. A step back in time in the history of Palladio, who here is a novice yet already the creator of a project by the much more illustrious Giulio Romano, as well as of his youthful dream: that great men would dare to bet on him, teaching him to dare ..

The only palace of his that Palladio was able to see completed was the one for Count Montano Barbarano, an excellent musician, passionate about ancient histories like the architect and many others in the Vicenza of the time. At a high price, however: the children were forced to sell it immediately, the mansion that had elevated the family to the rank of the most glorious, but which had also reduced it to bankruptcy ... Today the prestigious building houses the Palladio Museum in Vicenza.

What a great port, Count Iseppo. That was their road, precisely the Contrà dei Porti, half owned by their ancient illustrious family from Vicenza, the other half by the Thiene, whose daughter Iseppo had recently taken as his daughter Livia. A kaleidoscope of versions, rethinking, corrections and variations characterized the design: the clients had an understanding of architecture and the result was a high discussion with Palladio, a dance, between inspections and dinners, which lasted years. There was talk of projects, but also of much more: a few years earlier he, Adriano Thiene and several other friends had been jailed, accused of heresy ...

Like Palazzo Thiene, the Villa for Marcantonio and Adriano Thiene was also designed by the great Giulio Romano, the family architect who had very close relations with the Gonzagas of Mantua. At the beginning of his career as an architect, Palladio was actually the director of the works here, knowing how to show the masons how to do without a stone as much as possible, in favour of terracotta even in differently shaped parts. He was himself a construction man. But this was interrupted, to be taken up much later in another direction ...

The shade of the trees in the Salvi Gardens appears almost jealous of the beauty that seems to want to hide from the unwary and curious eye. In the Valmarana garden, under the walls of Porta Castello, a loggia is reflected in double symmetry on the veil of water, created for Leonardo, son of that Giovanni Alvise, a great friend of Palladio. Palladian work or not? Palladian in any case, to the extent that his style "alla Palladia" is, which was already beginning to be imitated while the architect was alive. An enchantment between form and substance, idea and matter, vision and reality ...

The tour and the fascinating history of Vicenza will come to an end with the return to Palazzo Valmarana Braga, our starting point. You can visit the shop or ask for advice from the highly trained and attentive staff of our info point, who will be happy to help you plan the continuation of your stay.