Another way of looking at it
by iandsmith
This pic is taken from the same bridge as the previous shot, just looking in the other direction. Ponte S. Paolo indeed offers the best water views in Vicenza.
I couldn't help but wonder while taking this as to how high the floods come. In Australia, building codes simply wouldn't allow you to do anything like this.
I'd also never seen a shot taken in this direction before though I'm sure many exist. Most people just concentrate on the historic bridge on the other side.
Palladio and his work - Duomo
by croisbeauty
The magnificient Duomo, the Cathedral of Vicenza, is situated on Piazza Duomo which is only about two hundred meters far from Piazza dei Signori. The cathedral, dedicated to Santa Maria Maggiore, though essentially Gothic, is however the result of work from different periods. One of the most significant was the covering of the tribune, carried out under Palladio's direction in 1565, and the construction of the dome in 1574.
Villa Valmarana ai Nani
by iandsmith
Ah yes, by now I had found Palladio but Tiepolo, in real form, eluded me. The scenes inside in which the Olympian Gods rest on clouds while watching scenes from Homerian and Virgilian epics were to be denied me. It was "chiuso", like the rest of Italy.
Still, I got to see the "nani" or dwarfs after which the building is named. They are in this picture, if you look closely, perched on the fence line designed by Antonio Muttoni in 1688.
(see also Things to Do tips for my second visit)
Death of Magellan, by Pigafetta
by iandsmith
See general tips about Pigafetta's house in Vicenza.
Our only immediate knowledge of Magellan's journey comes from the diary of the Italian Antonio Pigafetta. Antonio was not a member of the crew but an adventurous tourist who volunteered as historian for the voyage. In the following excerpt Antonio describes the death of Magellan on an island of the Philippines.
Searching for a way to control the native population after he leaves the island, Magellan persuades one of the local chiefs to convert to Christianity (referred to by Antonio as the "Christian King"). Magellan hopes to make this chieftain supreme over the remaining local tribes and loyal to the King of Spain. To bolster this chief's local supremacy, Magellan decides that a show of force, particularly the power of his muskets and cannon, against a neighboring tribe will impress the natives into submission.
Magellan orders an attack but miscalculates. He does not take into account that the reefs along the island's beach will not allow his ships to get into effective range for their cannon. As the battle is joined along the beach, the Spanish fire their muskets ineffectively from too far a distance despite Magellan's attempt to order his crew to cease-fire. Emboldened, the natives rush into the water flinging spears at the unprotected legs and feet of the Spanish. The crew abandons Magellan in panic and the Captain is soon overwhelmed:
"When morning came, forty-nine of us leaped into the water up to our thighs, and walked through water for more than two cross-bow flights before we could reach the shore. The boats could not approach nearer because of certain rocks in the water. The other eleven men remained behind to guard the boats. When we reached land, those men had formed in three divisions to the number of more than one thousand five hundred persons. When they saw us, they charged down upon us with exceeding loud cries, two divisions on our flanks and the other on our front.
When the captain saw that, he formed us into two divisions, and thus did we begin to fight. The musketeers and crossbow-men shot from a distance for about a half-hour, but uselessly; for the shots only passed through the shields which were made of thin wood and the arms [of the bearers]. The captain cried to them, "Cease firing cease firing!" but his order was not at all heeded. When the natives saw that we were shooting our muskets to no purpose, crying out they determined to stand firm, but they redoubled their shouts. When our muskets were discharged, the natives would never stand still, but leaped hither and thither, covering themselves with their shields. They shot so many arrows at us and hurled so many bamboo spears (some of them tipped with iron) at the captain-general, besides pointed stakes hardened with fire, stones, and mud, that we could scarcely defend ourselves.
Seeing that, the captain-general sent some men to burn their houses in order to terrify them. When they saw their houses burning, they were roused to greater fury. Two of our men were killed near the houses, while we burned twenty or thirty houses. So many of them charged down upon us that they shot the captain through the right leg with a poisoned arrow. On that account, he ordered us to retire slowly, but the men took to fight, except six or eight of us who remained with the captain.
The natives shot only at our legs, for the latter were bare; and so many were the spears and stones that they hurled at us, that we could offer no resistance. The mortars in the boats could not aid us as they were too far away.
So we continued to retire for more than a good crossbow flight from the shore always fighting up to our knees in the water. The natives continued to pursue us, and picking up the same spear four or six times, hurled it at us again and again. Recognizing the captain, so many turned upon him that they knocked his helmet off his head twice, but he always stood firmly like a good knight, together with some others. Thus did we fight for more than one hour, refusing to retire farther. An Indian hurled a bamboo spear into the captain's face, but the latter immediately killed him with his lance, which he left in the Indian's body. Then, trying to lay hand on sword, he could draw it out but halfway, because he had been wounded in the arm with a bamboo spear. When the natives saw that, they all hurled themselves upon him. One of them wounded him on the left leg with a large cutlass, which resembles a scimitar, only being larger. That caused the captain to fall face downward, when immediately they rushed upon him with iron and bamboo spears and with their cutlasses, until they killed our mirror, our light, our comfort, and our true guide. When they wounded him, he turned back many times to see whether we were all in the boats. Thereupon, beholding him dead, we, wounded, retreated, as best we could, to the boats, which were already pulling off."
Bassano Ponte Vecchio-Wood
by BruceDunning
The bridge is actually a site to see. It was built in 1209m and burned three times and rebuilt. In 1524, it was built in concrete and did not last more than 3 years-who knows why? The bridge was destroyed in WWI and again rebuilt. The issue for the bridge is many other people also are standing on the bridge for the same reason. It is crowded, I am sure especially in summer tourists season.
Museo Ponte degli Alpina Howis in a bar/restaurante downstairs. It does have some artifacts and alpine flavor, but was a surprise as to its location. It is very small, and good it is free to enter through the restaurant. Grapperia Nardini is on the right bank, and also not much to see.
However, a lot of Italiano locals do come to BAssano on weekends to enjoy the splendor of it all. The streets get very crowded if you do not get there early.
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Indoor Dining Area
Side street view
Tower under some restoration
Front view of CAvelli
