More on our day in Vicenza 9-14-10

Here is a little bit more about our day in Vicenza on Saturday. After our gelato break we visited the Teatro Olympico. This indoor theater designed by Palladio and his successor is just incredible! The stage was constructed to show the perfect city for the very first production and it was so amazing that it was never changed. The perspective of the buildings and streets looks so good that it makes you want to go strolling down the street into the picture. It was definitely worth the 6 Euro Concessions price (student discounted ticket) we paid for the ticket to get in. After viewing the theater we stopped in the gift shop where I purchased a book about the theater that has better pictures than what I could take with my camera.


The ticket that we purchased to get in was also good for about 5 other museums so we visited the Palazzo Chiericati and Pinacoteca Civica where there were many rooms of beautiful Renaissance paintings. After that we visited the Galleria di Palazzo Leoni Montanari. This was a really beautiful Palazzo with really cool dragons carved into the stone above the entrance to the courtyard. It had a very cool display of Russian Icons. I found the icon coverings particularly interesting because I had not seen anything like that before. Unfortunately they wouldn’t let us take pictures in this gallery. After this one we went to one more, the Museo Naturalistico Archeologico, where we learned about the archeological finds from around the town.




Naida wanted to go take a look at a bridge on the other side of the town after this museum so we headed in that direction next. As we were walking that direction we happened upon a medieval parade through the town with trumpets, drums, and color guard. We watched the parade pass and then continued on to the bridge. After taking pictures on the bridge we returned to the center of the town were the parade had finished but the actors had continued with a show of more color guard performances, sword fighting, and blowing fire. The show lasted about an hour and then we headed back to the train to make our way home.



Back in Padova, as we were walking home from the train station, we happened upon some guys doing some break dancing outside a department store. A crowd had formed and we stopped to watch for a while before continuing home for the night.