| |
Cheap Car Hire Vicenza - Save 15% on your Car Rental in Vicenza |
|
Book your cheap car hire in Vicenza securely online and save on a wide choice of vehicles from low cost economy options through to our luxury range. Make the most out of your Vicenza car rental. Check out our Vicenza tourist destination guide and driving tips submitted by our visitors.
|
|
Driven in Vicenza ? Tell us about your driving tips and experiences
|
| Share your tips on parking, traffic, speed limits & more. Suggest a scenic drive or other advice. |
| Vicenza Overview |
The very sleek city of Vicenza is spaced about midway between Padova and Verona. It was absorbed by Venice in 1404, and the city's numerous Gothic palaces reflect its status as a Venetian satellite.
Today it reigns as the largest producer of textiles in Europe. Although better known as the focus of Italy's "Silicon Valley", prosperity has not ruined the look of Vicenza.
The center of the city is till partly enclosed by medieval walls and amalgam of Gothic and Classical buildings. |
| Vicenza Essentials |
Churches of Vicenza - Bombed in 1944, the Duomo was carefully reconstructed after the war. It is one of the few Italian cathedrals to be overwhelmed by its secular surroundings. Santa Corona is a Dominican church dating from the mid-thirteenth century.
Here you will see two of the three great church paintings in Vicenza: The Baptism of Christ (Giovanni Bellini), and The Adoration of the Magi (Paolo Veronese). The nearby Santo Stefano contains the third of the city's fine church paintings: Madonna and Child (Palma Vecchio).
La Rotonda - One of Europe's most imitated buildings because of its centrally-planned structure. It was designed not as the main building of a farm, but as a pavilion in which entertainments could be held and the landscape enjoyed. The villa's shape and hill-top position emphasize its domination of the surrounding countryside. A tour of the lavishly decorated interior will fully reveal the subtleties of the Rotonda.
The Teatro Olimpico - The oldest indoor theatre in Europe and one building in Vicenza you should not fail to go into. Palladio devised this covered amphitheatre, inspired by his studies of Roman structures in Italy and France.
The theatre opened in 1585, with an extravagant production of Oedipus Rex, and is still used for plays and concerts.
Piazza dei Signori - At this hub of the city, stands the most awesome of Palladio's creations: the Basilica. Designed in the late 1540s, this was Palladio's first public project and the one that secured his reputation.
Doric and Ionic colonnades enclose the fifteenth-century hall of the city council, and this vast Gothic hall is often used for good contemporary architecture exhibitions. The unfinished Loggia del Capitaniato, faces the basilica across the Piazza dei Signori.
The Palazzo Leoni-Montanari - The palace houses a rather specialized gallery, with a respectable collection of art from the Veneto. Eighteenth-century painting is best represented, including landscape works by Canaletto and Guardi. There is also a rather surprising collection of Russian icons.
|
| Vicenza Calendar - Pick of the Year's Events |
Living Chess Match (second weekend in September) - Held in Marostica, an attractive walled medieval town (25km north of Vicenza), with a black-and-white checkerboard-pattern town square (Piazza Castello). 550 citizens dress in splendid 15th-century costume and armour and become chess pieces on the black and white squares. Legend has it that the first such game was held by one of the town's noblemen to help determine which of two suitors should win his daughter's hand in marriage. The pagentry of this event makes it a winner.
Music Festivals at Arena di Verona (June to end of August) - In summer, spectacular open-air opera, theatrical ballets and performances, are presented at this venue.
|
Copyright © 132867 - Car Hire Express
All material on this site, including text, content and logo's are covered by UK copyright law
|
|
|
 |
| The car rental booking system uses the latest 128 BIT secure encryption to ensure your details remain safe! |
|
|
|
