The old town centre, enclosed by the walls dating back to the Middle Ages and the dominion of the Della Scala family, is rather small. So it is worth parking your car and visiting Vicenza on foot: indeed, this is the only way to get to know a town that is a continuous succession of things to be discovered: its houses, palaces, monuments, passage- ways, bright internal gardens, street scenes with an air of nobility, bridges, squares, colour and atmosphere. In this way you will discover a Renaissance town which however bears the signature of one architect, Palladio, who gave it a character that can be neither erased nor repeated: a town that has nonetheless maintained many memories of the Gothic style and still shows traces of its Roman past.

The first itinerary through the old centre starts out from Piazza Matteotti, once known as Piazza dell'Isola. The Bacchiglione used to flow past Palazzo Chiericati (1551); here there was the port of the town, where ships laden with timber used to arrive, and the cattle market.
Beyond it lay vegetable gardens and the open country: this explains why the façade of the building is so open and airy, half-way between a palace and a villa. This is our first encounter with Palladio and with the building that is considered his masterpiece. Since 1855 it has been the home of the Civic Museum with its rich Picture Collection. The seventeenth-century portal attributed to O.B. Revese leads into the courtyard and garden of the Olympic Theatre, a theatre that is a sight to be seen even when there is no performance.

The Olympic Academy commissioned Palladio to build it for the representation of classical tragedies.

The architect began work on the theatre in 1580, a few months before his death, and it was completed in 1584 by V. Scamozzi; the latter also created the Fixed Scenes and the rooms known as the Olympic Odeo. The theatre is a surprising, magic place, made of wood and stucco according to a classic pattern; the fixed scenes represent the five streets of Thebes seen in perspective, but they are in fact idealized views of streets in Vicenza itself.
As we go back up Corso Palladio, which Cesare Cantù described as "the most elegant street in Europe, not counting the Grand Canal in incomparable Venice", after a remarkable little building which according to tradition was "Palladio's House", amongst the green we find the Gothic Temple of Santa Corona (1261). Inside we can admire G. Bellini's masterpiece "The Baptism of Christ", "The Adoration of the Magi" by P. Veronese and the charming view of Vicenza by Fogolino on the predella of the Madonna of the Stars. The High Altar (1670) is an absolute marvel of inlaid marble and mother-of-pearl; the wooden Choir too is stupendous (1482-89); below the choir is the Valmarana Chapel (1597) designed by Palladio.

After passing, on the right of the church, the Cloisters of Santa Corona, destined to house the Nature Museum, on the corner with Contrà Apolloni we come to Palazzo Leoni- Montanari, a masterpiece of Baroque art in Vicenza, attributed to G. Marchi (1676). Since 1909 it has belonged to the Banca Cattolica which has had it restored and established as the permanent home of the collection of 14 paintings by Pietro Longhi and his school. In the inner courtyard is Hercules's Loggia, on two superimposed floors. A richly decorated scenic staircase leads to the rooms on the upper floor, including the Truth Gallery, the most luxurious of the rooms, with stucco decorations and monochrome frescoes by L. Dorigny.

Back on Corso Palladio, on the right stand the Church of San Gaetano Thiene (1720) and, immediately after it, Palazzo Schio known as the Ca' d'Oro, perhaps the finest example of the Gothic style in town (first half of the fifteenth century. Proceeding and turning to the left, we come to Contrà del Monte; here we can see beautiful wrought iron work on the windows and doorway of the side façade of the Monte di Pietà by F. Muttoni (1703). We then arrive in Piazza dei Signori, which has been the heart of activity in the town ever since the time of the Communes and also its "drawing room".
The majestic construction in white Piovene stone which occupies the south side is the Basilica or Palazzo della Ragione, the symbolic monument of Vicenza. The Basilica includes the previous fifteenth-century Gothic buildings with a double order of Loggias (1549-1617), by Palladio. The rhythm of the construction is marked out by Serlian arches and columns; the building, inside which there is a grand hall (52 x 22 metres), is covered with a copper keel roof.

Next to the Basilica stands the 82-metre tall Bissara Tower; as long ago as the fourteenth century the Commune had the first mechanical clock for public use installed there. On the other side of the piazza is the Loggia del Capitaniato (1571), an unfinished work by Palladio: stately and powerful, it was the residence of the Captain of the town, now it is the headquarters of the Town Council.
After the Loggia comes the long perspective of the sixteenth-century Palazzo del Monte di Pietà, with the fine Church of San Vincenzo in the centre: the façade of the Monte was once entirely covered with frescoes, now unfortunately worn away by time. The charm of this superb square is completed by the two elegant columns of the Redeemer (1640) and of St. Mark (1473).

Beyond the columns, on Piazza Biade, stands the Church of Santa Maria dei Servi; continuing on the right we come to Piazza delle Erbe with the Tower of Torment, a place of torture and prison where S. Pellico and F. Confalonieri were once held. At the end of the piazza, on the right, is a narrow little street, Contrà Pigafetta: that embroidery of marble lace and ornate Gothic elements is the house of Antonio Pigafetta (1481), the chronicler of Magellan's voyage around the world (1519-22). On either side of the portal is the navigator's motto in Old French:"Il n'est rose sans espine".

After going back up the Contrà and crossing Piazza dei Signori again, we return by Contrà Cavour to Corso Palladio.
Immediately on the right is the architraved portal of Palazzo Trissino-Baston (1592), now the Town Hall, a masterpiece by Scamozzi; especially worthy of note is the splendid Stucco Room on the second floor. Going back up Corso Palladio towards Piazza Castello, we pass a monumental parade of buildings and churches, so many that it would take too long to mention all of them. However, we must point out the Palazzo Zilieri - Dal Verme (1782) by O. Calderari; almost opposite stands the Church of the Fathers of the Oratory (1730); at the corner of Corso Palladio and Piazza Castello is the majestic Palazzo Bonin-Longare, built in the Palladian style by Scamozzi (first decade of the seventeenth century), now partly owned by the Association of Industrialists of the Province of Vicenza.

It has a scenic façade looking onto the internal courtyard, with a double trabeate loggia.
Piazza Castello is dominated by the Tower of Porta Castello (1343), the oldest and mightiest of the various towers that kept watch over the town in the Middle Ages, and enclosed by a great work of architecture, Palazzo Porto- Breganze, by Palladio and Scamozzi; like many other buildings it is unfinished. Beyond Porta Castello, in the Salvi Garden, the Palladian Loggia and Longhena's Loggia (1649) are reflected in the waters of the Seriola; the park is a typical garden in the English style.

As we leave the Salvi Garden and follow Corso SS. Felice e Fortunato, after about 700 metres we come to the Basilica of the same name, an architectural structure bearing clear signs of the early Christian period, intimately linked with the origins of Christianity at Vicenza. The first church, in the form of a hall, may be dated at the beginning of the fourth century A.D.; it was followed by a second early Christian church with three naves which was flanked by the Chapel of the Martyrion di Santa Maria Materdomini (398). The Benedictine monastery annexed to it was visited by Charlemagne; the church was destroyed by the Hungarians in 899 and later rebuilt, assuming its present form in about the early half of the twelfth century.
Inside there are splendid and important mosaic floors (4th century A.D.), while the paintings there include the altar- piece by A. Maganza, "St. Valentine healing the sick" (around 1585); this is linked with the traditional feast of St. Valentine which, every year on February 14, draws many people from Vicenza to this thousand-year-old church.
Unmistakable and characteristic is its Romanesque bell- tower (1160), with battlements and an octagonal spire.