The 18th century in Vicenza produced scholars capable of transforming architecture into an instrument of interpretation and memory. Among them, Ottavio Bertotti Scamozzi  stands out as one of the most refined figures of the period. He was born in 1719 into a modest family; his father worked as a barber, and the young Ottavio initially faced a future far from noble patronage or academic studies. His path shifted thanks to the interest of Marquis Capra , who recognized in him a

Quinto Remmio Palemone forgotten character of the Vicenza city. A street in the San Pio X district of Vicenza was dedicated to an unknown character from ancient imperial Rome. A slave from an educated family, who lived in Vicenza with a wealthy family, in need of a person who would best educate their offspring. He was born in Vicenza in the year 5 AD, therefore a contemporary of Jesus. "Many stamps of the gens Remmia QUINTUS REMMIO were found on Campus Marzius" wrote Giovanni

Filippo Pigafetta and 16th-century Vicenza culture In 2022, the 500th anniversary of Antonio Pigafetta's first trip around the world occurs; he is commemorated with due honors. It is also an occasion to remember that another member of the family, Filippo, was a leading exponent of the Vicenza culture of that century. He was born in Vicenza in 1533, the year in which historians hypothesize that Antonio died in Greece, fighting against the Turks. Like his ancestor, Philip too

Valerio Belli in the Vicenza culture of the 1500s Valerio Belli was born in Vicenza in 1468 to a rich Milanese family; he learned the art by joining the goldsmiths' brotherhood, specializing in the cutting and engraving of gems and rock crystal in Vicenza and Venice. He had important friendships in the Veneto . Palladio frequented his house being a friend of his son Elio, an Olympic physician and academic, and was able to study the rich collection of ancient coins and medals

Egidio Di Velo in the Vicenza culture of the nineteenth century Count Girolamo Egidio di Velo was born in Vicenza in 1792 from a noble family with vast possessions; he had in the city the Di Velo palace in Carpagnon, so comfortable that it could house the King of Denmark in 1709; in 1808 he also inherited the Montanari palace. After his studies, from 1812 he went on an educational tour in Europe: Paris, Holland, Denmark. He returned to Italy and in 1816 he was in Rome, Nap

Discovering the wonders to the south of Lake Garda , Pindemonte regenerated his poetics. The poet Ippolito Pindemonte actually stayed at the Parco Giardino Sigurtà , in 1792. There he embarked on a journey of discovery of this area, both as a pleasure trip and as a quest for poetic inspiration. "Why did I come here? Why today, I, Ippolito Pindemonte, find myself in a fairy place like Sigurtà Garden Park? What am I looking for? I certainly wouldn't be here if it weren't for m

In the Olympic Theatre , every sound seems to carry the memory of an origin. The air moving through the cavea, the light resting on the painted columns, the streets of Thebes suspended in their perpetual illusion: everything invites you to listen. Architecture speaks before the music even begins. In this theatre conceived by Andrea Palladio  and illuminated by the imagination of Vincenzo Scamozzi, the stage extends toward an impossible horizon. Forced perspectives descend lik

Francesco Aviani was a painter born in Venice but who had his most prosperous career in the Vicenza area, particularly as a fresco painter and landscape perspective painter. Among his various works he decorated the interior of Villa Chiericati Milan in Sandrigo with frescoes in 1703, but it is in oil painting that his style emerges from the waters of his mind. In his landscape works one can detect a nostalgic mood in depicting Venetian panoramas, fused together with figures b

Together with Giovanni Bellini and Vittore Carpaccio, Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano was one of the great painters active in the lagoon capital in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. We are talking about a magnificent Venice , one of the most brilliant artistic centres in the world. Giovanni was born and grew up inland, at the foot of the mountains in a town called Conegliano . That inland Veneto , made up of vast expanses enhanced by light, and framed by mounta