ITINERARIES AROUND THE TOWN
Green Vicenza: the parks
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Campo Marzo
(in front of the Railway Station)
This has belonged to the Commune of Vicenza for a great many
years; as early as 1200 it was indicated with the name
"Campus Marcius". It was always kept as a meadow; in 1816
the plane trees that now form the huge tunnel of Viale
Dalmazia were planted in honour of Franz I of Austria. Other
groups of trees are dotted here and there on the grass, in
controlled disorder, giving the air of an English park.
Salvi Garden
(Piazzale De Gasperi)
Opened to the public in 1592, it was arranged in the Italian
style with flower-beds in a regular geometric pattern and a
maze at the end; in 1826 it was rearranged in the English
style. The park is surrounded by a stream known as the
Seriola whose waters reflect two fine loggias: the Loggia
Palladiana (late 16th century) and the Loggia Longhena
(1649), commissioned from the Venetian architect by
Gianluigi di Valmarana for the meetings of academicians
concerned with philosophical debates and poetry reading.
Querini Park
(Viale Araceli)
This is the largest and most attractive park in the town
with a broad stretch of green bisected by an avenue lined
with eighteenth-century statues; on the left is a thick wood
of acacia and plane trees. A wooden bridge leads to a round
island where the architect A. Piovene built a charming
little temple in 1820. As a background for the park, pine
trees and cypresses of Lebanon and the bell-tower and
Church of Araceli; Iappelli collaborated in the
arrangement of the greenhouses.
Villa Guiccioli Park
(Monte Berico)
The old villa, by the architect G.A. Selva, is the home
of the Museum of the Risorgimento and the Resistance; the
large garden that surrounds it is now a public park
containing some forty plant species. The alternation of
lawns and groups of trees, the varied nature of the ground
and the absence of symmetry, though in a fairly small area,
give the Villa Guiccioli Park the characteristic style of
the romantic garden rather like an English landscape garden.
A network of gravel-strewn curved paths runs through the
park. A plan is being drawn up for using the park for
didactic purposes.
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