Vicenza: Countryside, Canines, & Cottontails

Hello again, Blogonauts...

...this time, from Vicenza!

I'm in a new city on the itinerary, and perhaps you ache for an orientation. But let's take a fresh approach, and momentarily set aside the discussion of history. Instead let's direct our gaze to springtime in Vicenza.

(Tomorrow we will rebuild our bridge to the wonders of the past. There is a lot to see across that temporal divide! But we all deserve a break from our ancestors, so let's sally forth.)

On Friday I took up travel again. The train from Padova dropped me in Vicenza right on schedule. I am impressed with the train network in Venetto (the Italian region I'm exploring at the moment). Purchasing tickets on the Trenitalia app is easy, the trains are timely, and honestly, the (subsidized) fares are dirt cheap.

But when I consider train stations, perhaps my expectations have grown a little jaded. The areas surrounding many European stations are noisy clusters of buildings, buses, and burger joints.

So imagine my surprise when I emerged from Vicenza's station to find....a wide open green space extending multiple acres. To be sure, there were buses, too, but look at all that grass!

The road stretching ahead reaches the city center in only about 200 meters, but that pleasant walk left a lasting first impression.

But wait! Once you reach the more urbanized edge, within a block you are greeted with yet another (albeit smaller) park, filled with trees, benches, and a variety of sculptures. Vicenza is a city designed to welcome both visitors and spring.

Now when you find parks, you also find pooches. It appears that Vicenza has more than tolerance for its canine citizens. They're essentially allowed everywhere (except, it seems, in the churches & museums...I saw the signage). Department stores? Sure! Grocery stores? Come on in! Restaurants...even the fancier ones? Well, that was a Corgi that just walked by my table.

Saturday morning I met a couple of Americans walking their Maltese puppy in the park near my hotel. A U.S. military base is nearby, and so Vicenza is home to several hundred US Army personnel while they are deployed here. (The couple with the puppy explained that currently all on-base housing is under renovation.)

As my day trundled on, to take a break between museums, I made my way to an even larger green space, Parco Querini. My goal was to take a photo of the whimsical ersatz Grecian temple there.

Soon after walking through the park gates, though, I saw 3 rabbit, each a different color, playing in the grass. So, out came my camera with the zoom lens. Hmm! Maybe someone owns these bunnies and they're just letting them get some sun. Then further along I recognized the real story.

 

There were literally dozens of rabbits, running around everywhere. If there is an Italian equivalent to Watership Down, it must be in Parco Querini.

 

The bunnies maintained a safe distance, but seemed not to fear picnickers or pedestrians. And humans here appear to comply with the leash laws, so the many dogs gave no threat either. (I saw one toddler chasing a rabbit, but the bunny simply stayed about 2 meters ahead of him...and no more.)

So, I continued on the path toward the temple. A moat surrounds the monument, and there I noticed a couple of turtles. Oh, cute! But once again, these were the stragglers. When I looked over the edge onto the bank, I saw dozens of turtles basking on the sun. Plus there were a couple of grey herons, joining the bunnies on the island.

While focusing my camera on one grey heron, I noticed something moving in the water. Was that an otter? A beaver? A muskrat? No, but it was something similar: a nutria. These rodents imported from South America are now endemic in parts of Europe. And once more, this lone swimmer was just the first of at least a dozen contented nutria I saw on the banks of the moat and its attached stream.

 

 

This menagerie was unexpected, but it was fun to come across wildlife not so wild that it wouldn't pause to pose for a photo. And for good measure, here is one last snapshot of that temple.

And for today's gastronomy gazette, I had a unique lunch on Friday at a "self-service" eatery named Righetti. The restaurant is sort of a cross between a US cafeteria and a buffet. They take no food or drink orders; you simply set your table, get your beverage, then go ask for what you want from the line cooks. Sometimes you have to wait, because it's not quite ready. So go get yourself some bread from the head-high bread bin, and come back to pick up your entré. Of course, here are a couple of photos.

Risotto

Righetti's bread bin. Pull out the drawer for a roll.

Tomorrow, we turn our attention to Vicenza's most famous resident: Andrea Palladio. Just consider that a build up.

Blog to you later!