Thursday - Teatro Olimpico, Church of Santa Corona, Marostica Castle

We started our day at the Teatro Olimpico, Palladio's last architectural accomplishment. It is a roofed theatre inspired by Ancient Greek theatres with lots of statues, columns and marble appearing surfaces made of wood, brick and stucco. The illusion of perspective created by the street scenes receding from the 5 entrance openings of the stage is very effective. I can see why architecture buffs love Vicenza. Palladio's buildings are everywhere. Next we decided to take a look inside the Church of Santa Corona, mainly because it was right across from our hotel. I wasn't totally enthusiastic about visiting yet another church until I saw the altar in this one. It was made of marble inlaid with ivory depicting scenes from the life of Christ and Mary. One of the panels shows Mary appearing in Vicenza in the 1400's when she made a surprise visit!  You can see the town in the background. The altar was stunning, framed in the light coloured apse. Around midday we decided to take a local bus out to Marostica, a small town located in the hills north of Vicenza to see the famous "chess town"with its old castle at the top of the hill built in the 13th century, the new castle built in the 14th century, its wall stretching for 1.7 kilometres, and its giant marble chess board occupying most of the main piazza. This is a human-sized chess board, and every two years there is a festival where people dress up in medieval costumes and become the pieces of the game.  They reenact the original match which took place over 500 years ago when two noblemen were seeking the hand of the beautiful maiden. We hiked up a steep stone pathway to the upper castle passing an olive orchard and great views of the lower town. We climbed up to the highest part of the ruins to take photos before our return. After all the excitement of the day, we relaxed with our new favourite apperitivo - spritz!!  (The photos appear according to the order of our day.)