In Vicenza, tourism was born centuries ago thanks to some important visitors who were passionate and curious about Palladio's works, just a few years after his death. We choose just a few here, jumping from one century to the next and remaining in the proximity of what today is by far the most visited attraction.
The first official tourists that history remembers were the very young representatives of the Tenshō Embassy, traveling from Japan to Europe between 1582 and 1590. The chronicles tell about four young nobles, aged 13 and 14, sons of aristocrats converted to Catholicism by St. Francis Xavier. The boys were chosen by Alessandro Valignano, inspector of the Jesuit missions in the East, with the dual purpose of bringing Japan closer to the West and obtaining support and financial help from the Roman papacy.
They left on a Portuguese ship with stops in China, Malaysia, Goa, Africa, Spain, then arriving in Rome.
Once their mission had been completed, they looked for boarding to return to the East. The port most suitable for the purpose was Venice; they went there and while waiting for the right ship, they toured the inlands of Venice as tourists and were in Vicenza in July 1585.Here they visited the newly inaugurated Olympic Theatre, welcomed with honor by the authorities, as requested by the Venetian Doge Nicolò Da Ponte. A monochrome fresco by Maganza in the Antiodeum portrays them on the first steps attentive to the welcome speech from the Olympic Academy.
Here below we report a passage from what Livio Pagello said to the guests, pronouncing his oration before those who he defined as the New Wise Men of the East: "Everyone enjoys, when he intends to find an instrument, or an art that he didn't previously know [...] But how much should we enjoy ourselves more, knowing now clearly that the earth is not so deserted, that it is inhabited in the entire circumference of its globe? Joy to us, and glory to the mighest God [---] It is particularly fitting that our Olympic company, so favored by you, should rejoice, as you deigned to visit it and honor it with your presence.”
Another exceptional tourist that we cannot fail to mention was the great english architect Inigo Jones. During his stay in Vicenza in 1613 he had the excellent guidance of Vincenzo Scamozzi. He was obviously a very attentive scholar of Palladio, as evidenced by the copy he owned of "The Four Books", which has survived to the present day and bears numerous personal annotations clearly in English.
It was Jones himself who, upon returning to London, spread with conviction the choice of Palladian architecture in his country, and from there subsequently - as we know - to different parts of the planet.
Another traveler, perhaps among the most famous exponents of the Grand Tour tradition, was undoubtedly another eternal, the German Johann Wolfgang Goethe, who stayed a few days in the city in September 1786.
He arrived in Vicenza incognito, declaring himself a painter. Knowing Latin perfectly and quite a bit of Italian, he mingled with the people and even attended a public debate at the Odeo Olimpico.
He admired the works of Andrea Palladio with the appreciated guidance of Ottavio Bertotti Scamozzi and wrote enthusiastic praise of him in his famous “Journey to Italy”: "There is something truly divine in his drawings: perfectly as is the form for a great poet, which shapes a third thing from truth and fiction, whose fictitious existence captivates us."
In more recent times, in 1901 Gabriele D'Annunzio visited here and from then on described us as "Vicenza the beautiful, my beloved city".
On this occasion, the poet proposed managing the Olympic as a National Theatre. The idea was not followed up at the time, but after the "green light" from the Senate Culture Commission, not even two months ago the Chamber of Deputies voted in favor of the bill to give the Olympic Theatre in Vicenza the title of national monument.
Visiting Vicenza and the Palladian Heritage still with that flavour, today in the age of artificial intelligence, is possible. And it's definitely not the same.
Find out how here!
Credits:
Ing. Fabio Gasparini, "Turismo di qualità a Vicenza", dalla rivista Vicenza in centro , periodico di Vicenza in Centro APS – anno XX n 2 – febbraio 2021
"Oratione agli Illustrissimi Ambasciatori Giaponesi venuti al Sommo Pontefice con la guida de’ Padri Gesuiti, recitata nell’Academia di Vicenza da Livio Pagello,” Biblioteca Civica Bertoliana, ms.171, 45r-46r
Arianna Nazzari, "L'ambasciata Tenshō", dal sito web dell'Associazione Culturale Giappone in Italia, maggio 2022
Adriana Eramo, "Goethe e Vicenza", dal sito web L'Altra Vicenza, marzo 2023
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