War Cemeteries of Vicentino

The First World War was fought between the Austrian-Hungarian empire on the east and the rest of the Europe (and USA) on the west, between 1914-1918.

The tiny town of Schio in north-east part of Italy, where I live, is a part of the Vicentino area around the historical town of Vicenza, and is marked by the little Dolomite mountains of the Alps. Some of the most furious battles of that war were fought in these mountains.

There are three major war monument-cemeteries (known as Sacrario) on these mountains - on Pasubio mountain, on the Altopiano of Asiago and on the Grappa mountain. (In the image below - a view of the top of Grappa Sacrario)

Recently, our local book-readers' group decided to visit the war-sites described in a book about the first world war, that we had read. The book written by Paolo Malaguti was titled "Moro della Cima"  (Moro of the mountain top), and it told the story of a man called Moro who used to live at the top of the Grappa mountain and had played a role in the battles around that area.

This post is a result of this visit to the Grappa mountain, at around 1,800 meters, and it briefly presents the three mountain cemeteries.

The Sacrario-Cemeteries

All the towns in this part of the north-east of Italy have their first World War cemeteries, with the tombs of the local boys who had died in that war.

However, around 20 million soldiers had died in that war, thousands of bodies had been lost and many soldiers had not been identified. After the end of the war, for some of them, Sacrarios (sacred monuments) were built in which the remains of a lot of soldiers were put all together.

The Sacrario of Grappa Mountain

The Grappa mountain looms over the town of Bassano. In the battles of Grappa, around half-a-million guys had died and another half-a-million had ended with disabilities. All towns and villages around Grappa have their local monuments to remember those guys and almost every family have relatives who had taken part in that war.

The biggest cemetery is the Sacrario monument at the top of the mountain with thousands of tombs. The monument is divided into two parts - on one side are the Italians and on the other side, are the Austrian-Hungarian tombs.

At the top, connecting the two sides, there is a wide-strip of land, from where you can look down at the mountain-slopes. Underneath the monument is a few kilometers long gallery, part of which can be visited, which had a hospital, dining mess and spaces for firing artillery fire on the enemy soldiers.

In the Austrian-Hungarian part of the cemetery, there is a tomb of a young boy, which has become a pilgrimage site and is often cited during the calls for peace and against the wars. It is called the tomb of Peter Pan. The blond angelic looking boy's body was found in September 1918 and the Italian soldiers who found him gave him the name, Peter Pan. Later his real identify was discovered, he was from a Hungarian village, which is now part of Romania. People place flowers, sea-shells and stones on his tomb.

Sacrario of Asiago

Asiago is a part of seven municipalities spread over the high-plains of Vicentino region. German-speaking Cimbrian people from the Bavarian region of Germany had settled here. It is a well-known tourist place known for its beautiful mountains, lakes and skiing slopes.

The Sacrario monument of Asiago is a huge construction in the form of an arch at the top of a hill.

Sacrario of Pasubio

Pasubio mountain (2,232 meters) looms above Schio, where I live. The mountain pass called Pian delle Fugazze at 1,163 meters, beneath the Pasubio mountain, holds another Sacrario, which I can see from our back-terrace.

The Sacrario looks down from a panoramic point at the Leogra valley and its towns - Sant'Antonio, Valli del Pasubio and Schio.

A short distance below the sacrario, around the edge of the mountains is an old fort (Forte Maso), which was also a site of a furious battle. Walking around Pasubio, one can see smaller monuments remembering specific battles and their soldiers.

Other First World War Buildings

Scattered across these mountains, there are numerous ruins of old buildings, artillery sites, tunnels and caves which were used during the different battles.

One of my favourite such sites is located at a place near Tonezza del Cimone, not far from Schio, with the ruins of bunkers of the Austrian soldiers on a mountain-side. (In the image below)

It is such a beautiful place with wonderful views of the surrounding valleys. To think of the war, bombs and people dying in that place, makes me feel very sad, and I cam imagine the lives of those soldiers.

In Conclusion

Let me conclude this post with a picture of some of our book-readers' group-members from the Sacrario of Grappa mountain.

It was a beautiful visit to the top of Grappa mountains. Being together with our book-loving friends was great. Thinking of the world war history and the book we had read, made that history and those events come alive.

These cemeteries have tombs of soldiers from all over Europe, including from UK and USA. The well-known American writer Ernest Hemingway had been an ambulance driver in Schio during that war in 1918. Thus, these sites are pilgrimage places for the families of those soldiers from different countries.

A big thank you to Michela, our readers'-group coordinator, and to Mirko, who was our guide for this visit.

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#grappa #warcemeteries #firstworldwar #northeastitaly #bookreaders #schiocultura

Red Riding Hood Exhibition

Red Riding Hood is a familiar and much loved fable for children about a little girl and a big bad wolf. At the same time, it hints at the dangers of dangerous encounters for children. Recently I visited an exhibition about the little Red Riding Hood (Cappuccetto Rosso) in Schio (Vicenza, Italy).

This post talks about the life-long passion of two women, Paola & Ivana, about this fable, which led them to collect books, dolls, puppets and other rare objects on this theme from different parts of the world. At the same time, the post looks at how the story of this fable has evolved over the centuries.

The Little Red Riding Hood Exhibition

This exhibition was held at the historical Palazzo Toaldi Capra in Schio in April 2024. The exhibition poster was based on illustrations made by the high-school kids of Schio. Younger children had helped in preparing the red and black boxes used for displaying some of the exhibits.

The image below shows the illustrations by the students of Arturo Martini Arts School, which were used for making the poster.

The exhibition included a large number of books in different languages about Red Riding Hood, including books with paper-art and those with exquisite illustrations, some of them very old. Parents accompanying small children were encouraged to sit down and go through some of the books.

Children could also play with the dolls and the puppets including the glove-puppets. The special exhibits included the grand-mother's bed, a mobile wood-cut scene of the fable and, a special doll is which can transform the girl into the grandmother and then into a wolf.

People Behind the Exhibition (and the collection)

The collection used for the exhibition is the result of a life-long passion of two women, friends and neighbours, from Schio - Paola Gandini and Ivana Organo (image below).

I spoke to Paola about it. She said that Ivana had become her neighbour some forty years ago when, newly married, she had come to live next door. Both had developed this passion for collecting stuff related to Cappuccetto Rosso (literally "red hood" in Italian). Most of the stuff was bought from antiquarian markets.

Some years ago, they found that Emilia Romagna region in Italy had organised a book exhibition on this theme. Since they had so much more stuff about this theme, and not just books, they also decided to organise something. Their first exhibition one was in San Leguzzano, not very far from Schio, during their Museum Night event. Since then it has been organised in different towns, especially in collaboration with local civic libraries and schools. The present exhibition in Schio has been organised with the local Comune office, the Colore del Grano children's bookshop and the civic library, as a part of the Schio che Legge (Schio Reads) initiative.

Paola said that everytime it has been a different exhibition since they need to adapt to the space they get in each site. Their collection is very big and usually the space is limited, so they need to decide what to share. For example, in one of the exhibitions, they also had a tunnel representing wolf's tummy, in which children could enter.

For her, the exhibition object which is closest to her heart is a handmade book on this theme made for her by her daughter.

Fable of Red Riding Hood

Some panels in the exhibition illustrate how the fable changed and evolved during the centuries. According to the French researcher Paul Delarue, this story was known from older times and in many versions. In those earlier stories the girl did not have the red hood and showed courage in escaping from the wolf.

For example, in one version, she tells the wolf that she needs to pee and so the wolf ties a red-ribbon to her leg and allows her to go out. Once out, she opens the ribbon, ties it to a tree and runs away.

In the written version from 1697 called Le Petit Chaperon Rouge, by Charles Perrault in France, the story did not have a happy ending - in the end the wolf ate the girl.

The most well-known version is the one from 19th century by the Grimm brothers in which they had introduced the figure of the hunter (sometimes replaced by a wood-cutter) who kills the wolf in the end and saves the girl and her grandmother.

Fable As a Warning for Children

As parents we are faced with two opposite needs - the need to help our children grow up as friendly and open persons, who love and respect nature; and the need to protect them from the violence, especially sexual violence of predatory grown-ups.

The wolf in the story represents danger. The fable can be used to talk about inappropriate touch and dangers of grown-ups who approach and lure minors, and exploit them.

 At the same time, we also need to talk about wolfs in nature, who are an important part of our wild-life and who have been decimated in large parts of the world due to the expanding needs of humans and the diminishing forest-covers. The fable provides us with an opportunity to talk about this as well.

In the End

Paula asked me if I could bring for her a book on Red Riding Hood in an Indian language and I have promised her that I will look for it during my next visit to India. If any of my readers have a suggestion about this, do let me know.

She also said that her dream is to have a permanent location for setting up a Red Riding Hood museum in Schio, so that people from all over can come and visit it.

After visiting the exhibition I was thinking about how an unusual passion of 2 persons can lead to an important cultural meeting point for so many important issues like children's safety, wildlife and nature and at the same time, bring together the worlds of book writers, illustrators, doll makers, puppet makers, painters and so many other artists and artisans.

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The Roman Town: Concordia Sagittaria

Concordia-Sagittaria is a tiny town in north-east of Italy, not far from the port-city of Portogruaro. Though it is a tiny place today, it is an important part of the Roman history and it has some good archeological places to visit.

It's history illustrates how the rise and ebbs of time change the fortunes of places and their people. Once an important transit point for the Roman empire, today it is a small but charming agricultural town of about ten thousand persons.

If you are staying in one of the seaside holiday towns along the northern Adriatic coast of Italy like Jesolo, Caorle, Bibione and Lignano, you might like to spend a day visiting Portogruaro and Concordia-Sagittaria.

Roman Town of Julia Concordia

The town existed as a small pre-Roman  area since 9th century BCE, as confirmed by some archeological finds shown in its museum. Romans gave it the name of Julia Concordia.

The Roman empire had started as the Roman Republic in the city-state of Rome around 150 BCE. Julia Concordia was founded in 42 BCE, during the last years of the Roman Republic (Roman empire period started in 31 BCE). By that time, all of northern Italy was part of the  Roman Republic. Foundation of Julia Concordia coincided with the northwards expansion of the Roman empire towards northern and central Europe.

In the second century BCE, the Romans had already built their biggest port in Acquileia, around 300 km north of Julia Concordia. The Annia road connected Acquileia to the town of Padua, south of Venice, while the Postumia road connected Acquileia to the Genova port on the west. Concordia was chosen to be the Roman city because those two key roads crossed here while the Lemene river provided an entrance to the Adriatic coast and to the inland port of Portogruaro. Over the next centuries, Julia Concordia became an important Roman town with the construction of bridges, an amphitheatre and baths.

The local legend says that the Roman legionaire who had shot Jesus Christ while he was on the cross in Jerusalem with his arrow, was from Concordia. Later on St Mark was supposed to have stayed in the house of the same legionaire while he was writing his version of the Gospels. Still later, a chapel was built at that location, which was close to the present location of the St Stephen cathedral.

After the fall of the Roman empire, Concordia was destroyed many times, first by the army of Attila the Hun and then by the Lombards.

During the Roman period, the town of Julia Concordia was known for its arrow-making (Sagitae). Thus, in early 20th century, its name was changed to Concordia-Sagittaria. Probably, it was done during the Mussolini period, when remembering the glorious Roman past was considered as important for the nation-building.  

Archaeological Ruins in Concordia   

Remains of the Roman times dot the landscape in and around Concordia-Sagittaria. There are ruins of mosaic floors, amphitheatre, ancient baths and tombs of the soldiers. Most archeological finds from Concordia-Sagittaria are kept in the national museum in Portogruaro, some kilometres away. Some of the archeological finds are also shown in the local museum of Concordia-Sagittaria.

Underneath the tenth century cathedral dedicated to St. Stephen near the city centre, you can visit the old ruins with a beautiful mosaic floor (the entrance is inside the cathedral).

The nearby Baptistry (in the image below) made in the form of the Greek cross on a square base, is from 11th century while the bell tower is from 12th century.

I was told that some ruins of an old Roman bridge and the amphitheatre were located in the countryside, just outside Concordia town but I was unable to go and look for them.

Walks in the City Centre

The city has a tiny and quaint centre with its historical municipal building, colourful houses and simple trattorias for a relaxed lunch of local cuisine. The Bishop's house from 1450 CE, built in Venetian style and the Town Hall from 1526 CE are two beautiful buildings, to be visited in the tiny city centre. 

Lemene river passes through the city centre of Concordia-Sagittaria. The whole area along the river is wonderful for a leisurely walk or a picnic, while admiring the ducks and geese in the water and the beautiful panoramas.

The city hosts a famous annual local fair dedicated to the city's Patron saint, it is called "la fiera di Santo Stefano" and is held around the end of July each year.

Finally

Italy is full of beautiful historical towns. Most tourists coming to visit Italy hardly ever manage to go beyond Florence, Venice, Pisa and Rome. However, if you are visiting the Adriatic coast in the north-east of Italy for the summer holidays, you can also visit the nearby smaller towns. In that case, it might be worthwhile for you to combine the visits to Portogruaro and Concordia-Sagittaria.

I am not very fond of the seaside holidays, but they are loved by my family. We usally go to Bibione for these holidays. For me the seaside holidays are an opportunity to visit the smaller towns, such as Concordia-Sagittaria and to explore thier histories. 

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Unusual Vicenza: Discovering the Magic

Venice does not need an introduction. Many tourists visiting Venice have also heard of Verona. However, very few persons visiting Venice and Verona know of Padova and Vicenza.

Vicenza is counted among the 4 beautiful cities in the Veneto region in north-east of Italy along with Venice, Padova and Verona. Each of these cities is a concentration of history, art and culture. At the same time, each of these cities is distinctive - Venice is the city of canals, Padova is the oldest European university and the city of the saints (St Anthony and St Justine), Verona is the city of Romeo and Juliet, while Vicenza is the city of the architect Andrea Palladio and is a World Heritage city for UNESCO.

This post is an introduction to Vicenza, which has a large number of buildings designed by Andrea Palladio, one of the most influential architects of recent history. For example, his little gem, Villa Rontonda (in the image above), has inspired many patrician houses around the world including the White House.

This post is also about unusual ways for discovering the city's magic, seen through my eyes of nostalgia and through the eyes of Chiara Pesavento, who is passionate about languages, history and culture of this city.

Vicenza of My Memories

I had come to Vicenza in 1979 and stayed for a period at the guesthouse of the Filippini Church along the city's central street called Corso Palladio. Listening from my room on the second floor to the concerts of organ music held in the church below, is one of my first memories of this city and of Italy. At that time I was not very familiar with the western classical music and I remember my shock when it had happened for the first time - I felt surrounded by the warm pulsating embrace of the music as it had filled my room, it was absolutely amazing. Probably the particular acoustics of that building had something to do with that experience.

"Ai Filippini" was a 2 minutes walk from the city's central square, Piazza dei Signori (Lords' Square), where I remember spending hours on the weakends, admiring the absolutely amazing Loggia del Capitanio and the imposing Basilica with its green domed roof. Both these buildings were the works of Andrea Palladio, though at that time I had no idea about who he was!

I loved sketching in those days and that had helped me to become familiar with different landmarks of the city including the incredible Olympic theatre, Chiericati Palace Museum, Montanari Palace and 2 wonderfully landscaped parks - Querini park and Salvi park. Another of my favourites memories is that of the climb to the Monte Berico church at the top of the hill overlooking the city. The image (above) presents one of my sketches of the Piazza dei Signori from those days.

When I look back, I feel that I was fortunate to have the introduction to the historical and cultural treasures of Italy through the unassuming and lesser-known Vicenza. Most tourists to Italy know of Rome, Florence, Pisa, Venice and Pompei. A few more discerning ones know about Bologna, Naples, Verona or 5 Terre. Relatively few think of visiting Padova or Vicenza. Knowing Italy through Vicenza has taught me about the joys of visiting smaller and relatively lesser known Italian towns to discover their hidden gems of history, art and culture.

Today, I live in Schio, a tiny town situated 20 km from Vicenza. Even Schio and many other smaller towns of the province of Vicenza, such as Thiene, Bassano del Grappa and Marostica, have so many historical, artistic and cultural sites to discover, that would be impossible to find in any other country! Anyway, enough about my memories of Vicenza - let me now give you a brief glimpse of the town through the eyes of Chiara Pesavento, who is more qualified to talk about it.

About Chiara Pesavento

Chiara Pesavento is a tourist guide in Vicenza, active in this role since 2006. Her decision to become a tourist guide can be traced to a visit to an art collection in Chiericati Palace Museum as a child, when she was struck by the description of a painting by the guide. "Suddenly that uninteresting piece of art acquired details and a depth of meaning" she explains, "and I knew that I wanted to be a tourist guide."

She also had a passion for learning languages (she speaks Spanish, French and English) and loves meeting persons from different countries. All these skills combined to create a person who is passionate about the history, art and culture of her town, and she loves to share these passions with people who come to visit Vicenza. For this post, I asked her to talk about some special thematic tours, which help in discovering lesser-known aspects of this city.

Unusual Vicenza

One of Chiara's favourite tours of Vicenza is called "The lost treasures". For this tour, she uses old city maps from '700 to visit and understand how the city has changed over the past centuries. It means going around to see buildings that are not there anymore and to hear about the history of what had happened and how the city had changed. This also helps in understanding the old toponomies of the town. For example, there were about 50 churches in Vicenza in late medieval period, out of which only 17 are still there today, while the remaining are lost. Many of these were lost during the occupation of the city by Napoleon Bonaparte. This tour lets you understand the impact of that occupation.

Another tour of the city is through its art collections. The art collection at Chiericati palace museum, the collection of 18th century Venetian art at Montanari palace, the sacred-art collection at the Diocesan museum and the different art works in the city churches - if you love art, there is so much to see and discover in Vicenza. For example, the St. Corona church has the altar and a painting by one of the famous Venetian artists, Giovanni Bellini.

About 500 years ago, Antonio Pigafetta, a writer, navigator and geography expert from Vicenza, had completed an around-the-world trip. To celebrate this event, together with her colleagues, Chiara proposes the "Pigafetta tours of Vicenza", to discover the Gothic town of the 15th century. It was a period when the town was recovering from the plague epidemic, agricultural crisis and famines. The tour allows the visitors to look at the buildings from that era and to understand the life of those times.

Chiara feels that there are many aspects of the city linked with its artisans and production systems, which are equally valuable to visit and to know better. For example, Vicenza has long traditions of wool and silk production since 15th century. It is also known for it goldsmith artisans. Another example is that of specialised printing such as the Busato artistic printing press specialised in chalcography (bronze plate engraving for printing), lithography (printing with stone or metal plate) and xylography (wood-block printing). She feels that tours to visit and see these artisans at work can be another interesting way to discover and understand the city.

Conclusions

With the Covid-19 epidemic, few persons are travelling around. However, hopefully soon this epidemic will be over and persons will start travelling and visiting other countries. Personally, I miss my travelling very much. However, not to be able to travel to far-away places has a positive side-effect - I can go back and rediscover my old favourite towns like Vicenza.

When travelling will become possible and you will plan a visit to Venice and surrounding cities, I suggest that you keep a few days to discover towns like Vicenza, Padova and Verona, and to visit the smaller provincial towns of Vicenza such as Schio, Bassano and Marostica.

If you want to contact Chiara Pesavento, you can check her website - Vicenza Tourist Guide.

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10 Things to do in Schio

If you are you visiting Schio (Province of Vicenza in north-east of Italy), this post is for you. It presents my list of 10 things to do or to see in the centre of Schio - all the places indicated in this post are at walkable distance from the city centre.

Schio is a small town located on the foothills of Alps mountains. If you like history, culture and picturesque places where you can go for walks, then Schio is worth a visit, as this post will show you.

I will do a separate post for all the beautiful places around Schio, and there are a lot of them. This post is limited to the places in or near the city centre.

Schio - General Information

Schio comes under the province of Vicenza (28 km away) in the Veneto region. Nearby other well-known towns include Venice (120 km), Verona (95 km) and Padova (67 km). It is located in the northern part of Veneto, on the foothills of mountains known as Piccole Dolomiti (small Dolomites). It is connected to Vicenza by local trains (1 hour journey) and the state bus service. Schio's history goes back to at least the Roman times when it was called Scledum.

Vicenza is on the Venice-Milan and Venice-Trento-Bolzano train lines, and is thus well connected to trains from Switzerland, Austria and northern Europe. On the other hand, to go to Rome and south Italy, you need to change the train at Padova.

Schio was famous in 19-20th centuries for its wool mills. The biggest mill belonged to the Rossi family. Because of those wool mills it was one of the important industrial towns and was called the Manchester of Italy.

A hill crosses the town from south-east to the north-west - the eastern tip of this hill has the Duomo (cathedral) and the castle of Schio, while a Cappuchin monastery occupies the western end of this hill. A historical lithograph of Schio from 1864, commissioned by Alessandro Rossi, in the image below (curtsey @schiocultura) shows the area of Fabbrica Alta, as well as the San Rocco church on the hill in the right side with the Pasubio mountain in the background.

With this basic information, let me start with my list of 10 things to see/visit/do in the centre of Schio.

1. Duomo of Schio

The Duomo (Cathedral) of Schio is located in the city centre on the Rossi square and is an imposing structure atop a hillock, converted into a high platform with stairs going up on the two sides. It is dedicated to St. Peter. It was built in the 14th century. The present layout of the buildings was given more recently - it was started in 1747 and completed almost 130 years later in 1879.

The entrance of the cathedral has the sculptures of the 4 evangelists and a strip of bass-relief showing episodes from the life of St. Peter. Inside, among the different art works you can see a Madonna by the Venetian artist Jacopo Palma from the 16th century.

You can also admire the view of city and the surrounding mountains from the terrace of the Duomo.

2. Castle of Schio

The old castle of Schio was located at a higher level compared to the Duomo hill. It was built in the iron age and was dismantled in 15th century. Today only the old tower of the castle along with a more recent church (Santa Maria della Neve) remain on the hill. The church is no longer used for religious purposes and hosts the photography club of Schio.

Stairs from different sides of the hill go up to the castle, making it a short but invigorating walk. On the hill in front of the church you can see the base of two old towers of the castle. From here you also have a lovely view of the mountains surrounding the city.

At the base of the castle hill, a tunnel was constructed during the Second World War as a bomb-refuge. It is around 100 metres long and is now used by a local dairy company for stocking its local cheese, sold as "Formaggio della Grotta" (The cave cheese of Schio).

3. St. Francis church

The 15th century St. Francis church is located at the north-eastern edge of the central hill. It is one of the most beautiful buildings of Schio, with a stone bell-tower. Among the artworks, it hosts a luminous altarpiece by the artist Francesco Verla from early 16th century, which has been recently renovated.

Next to the church is an old Franciscan monastery, which does not have any monks at present. Part of it is used by a woman's self-help group called Daisy - they accompany the tourists to visit the church on Friday & Saturday afternoons. The church also opens in the mornings for the daily Mass.

4. Valletta

In front of the St. Francis church starts the Parco della Valletta (Little valley's park), a green oasis in the centre of Schio. It is characterised by century old trees and pathways going up and down the hill. From the park some of the views of the surrounding mountains are beautiful.

Coming out from St. Francis church, if you follow the road going downwards on the left (Via Grumi dei Frati), you can walk down to see a small beautiful chapel along the roadside - it is the 16th century chapel called Madonna della Salute, with a small water-canal passing underneath it. Behind the chapel is an arch from where you can climb the stairs to go back towards the Castle.

To the left of the chapel, another set of stairs also take you up towards the castle.

5. Piazza Rossi & Piazza Garibaldi

Via Pasini is the main road with shops passing through the old city centre of Schio, starting near Piazza Rossi and the Duomo. Piazza Garibaldi marks the beginning of Via Pasini. This is a pedestrian area of Schio. The two little squares, Piazza Garibaldi and Piazza Rossi, are inter-connected and have different bars with tables on the street, where you can sit and soak in the city atmosphere. Weekends usually have live music shows in one of the bars, along with buskers playing music on the sides.

From Piazza Garibaldi, the road going up towards the castle has another couple of bars that you may wish to explore and to taste some of the local beers. If you are visiting Schio, remember to spend an evening sitting there and watching the people having a drink while they exchange the latest gossip.

The city organises different festivals including the British Day (in October) and Cosplay (in April). On Wednesday and Saturday mornings it has the weekly market. The area of Piazza Rossi-Piazza Garibaldi is usually the central point of all these festivities & markets. While you are there, do not forget to look at the historical statue of Il Tessitore (the weaver) in Piazza Rossi, which is the symbol of Schio.

6. Palazzo Fogazzaro

Along Via Pasini, the central road of old Schio, you can see the municipal building (Garbin Palace) and the 18th century Fogazzaro Palace. Built in the Palladio style, the Fogazzaro Palace is the cultural centre of Schio. It hosts many history, art and photography exhibitions, seminars and events, including the Biennale of Schio which focuses on Papermade art, which has been held regularly since 2013 and brings together artists from numerous countries across the world.

Till early part of 20th century, the main water canal of Schio called Roggia Maestra used to cross Via Pasini with a bridge on it and was therefore known as Via Oltre-Ponte.

The image below shows an art work by Wilhelm Senoner from an exhibition held in Fogazzaro Palace in 2019-20.

Across the road, you can take the Garbin underpass to go to Piazza Statuto to look at the main entrance of the municipal building. This square usually hosts a car parking, so it does not look very exciting. However on the days of the weekly market (Wednesday and Saturday), it gets a make-over and you can admire it better.

7. Toaldi Capra Palace

Via Pasubio, the second main street of the old city centre, starts from Via Pasini in the middle and proceeds northwards. On this road you can see different medieval houses of the rich families of Schio including the 13th century Toaldi-Capra palace. This building was used as the municipal building till the first World war. The first floor of this building has frescoes from 15th century.

Like the Fogazzaro palace, Toaldi Capra Palace is also an important site of cultural initiatives in Schio. Its courtyard hosts an open-air theatre which has dance and theatre performances, as well as, the summer film festival (the image below shows a historical enactment of the fall of the Venice Republic in 1797 in the open-air theatre of the Toaldi-Capra Palace).

The palace also hosts art and photography exhibitions, while the rooms on the first floor hold conferences and seminars.

Via Pasubio is also the site of biannual Sareo Art Festival (which had been suspended between 2020-2021 due to Covid-19) during which local artists and artisans show their works in an open air exhibition.

8. Jacquard Gardens and Industrial Archaeology

In the 18th century Schio had become an important industrial centre with different wool mills. These were powered by the waters of Leogra torrent through a canal known as Roggia Maestra. For the workers of the wool mills, new housing areas were created. The old mills, the houses of the mill-workers and the water canals, together form the industrial archaeology area of Schio.

There are 3 old wool mills near the Schio city centre. The Conte wool mill, which is now converted into a cultural space (the Shed) where art and photography exhibitions are organised. It is located on Via Pasubio, a little further down the road from Toaldi-Capra palace. Inside, this building you can also see the water canal of Roggia Maestra with its swirling waters (the image below shows an art exhibition in the Shed).

A little further down Via Pasubio is the Fabbrica Alta (High Mill), which was the biggest wool mill of Schio and belonged to the Rossi family. The grounds of Fabbrica Alta hold music shows and garden shows while the city is discussing how best to use its old buildings.

Across the road from the entrance of Fabbrica Alta are the Jacquard gardens, built for the mill workers in late 19th century. The gardens include a theatre, artificial caves, fountains, a glass-house and some sculptures. This park is open on summer weekends. From one side of the gardens, you can also admire the beautiful San Rocco church with its lovely bell-tower, located on the Castle hill, next to the gardens.

The third wool mill, Cazzola, was located further outside the central area along Via Pietro Riboli. During the first world war, this was converted into a field hospital where the well-known American writer Ernest Hemmingway worked as an ambulance driver. One of the side-streets behind the old wool-mill is named in his honour.

To look at the area which had the mill-workers houses, you need to walk from the city centre towards the Leogra torrent. Different criss-crossing roads such as Fusinieri, Tessitori, Rossi, Cimatori, etc. are all part of the industrial archaeological area.

You can also take a short walk along the torrent in the Via Lungo Leogra and take a selfie from its bridge, from where you have an excellent view of some of the beautiful mountains surrounding the town (the image below shows the torrent with reduced water-flow in the summer).

9. Civic Theater

The Civic Theatre was built in early 20th century and is situated on Via Maraschin. During the theatre season, it has a rich calendar of plays and concerts. Parts of the civic theatre are being renovated (winter 2020). Inside, the theatre has a beautiful frescoed first-floor hall.

The Civic Theatre also conducts theatre, dance and creativity workshops with schools, elderly persons and other groups.

Across the street from the Civic Theatre, you can walk to big central square of Schio - Piazza Falcone-Borsellino. It has a model showing the different mountains around the city and their names & heights. It also has a war memorial. Finally, my favourite place in this square, is a sculpture by Alfonso Fontana of a fountain with birds and children (the image below shows an overview of Falcone-Borsellino square seen from the back of Fogazzaro Palace).

10. Mother Bakhita church

Mother Bakhita was a catholic nun in the congregation of Figlie della Carita Canossiane (Canossian Daughters of Charity). Originally from Darfur (Sudan), she was kidnapped and sold as a slave when she was 9 years old. Destiny brought her first to Venice and then to Schio in late 19th century. She died here in 1947 and was declared a saint in 2000.

Followers of Saint Bakhita come to visit Schio from different countries. Her church is located in Via Fusinato, not far from the Duomo.

Conclusions

As you can see, even if Schio is only a tiny town, it has a few things to see and do for the visitors. The town is surrounded by beautiful places to visit, especially in the mountains and lakes, starting with the two mountains which guard the north and east of the town - Monte Summano and Monte Novegno. About all these, I will write in another post.

I first came to visit Schio in 1982. My wife's family had been living in the old mill-workers' area since late 19th century. After my retirement, we are living in that same family house where my wife, her father and her grand-father were born. I love living here - I love the view of the mountains, its roads going up and down and the numerous cultural opportunities it provides. It just needs a short bicycle ride to leave the city and to be in the beautiful countryside surrounding Schio, as shown in the view from Via Broglio below.

I had decided to limit this post to 10 places. This meant that I was unable to include some of my favourite places of the city in this list.

For example, I also recommend the walk from the castle towards the Capuchin monastery in the evening for breath-taking views of the mountains; and if you have time, go to the crossing between Via Bosco and Via Fogazzaro to see the lavandaia (washer woman) sculpture and the place along Roggia Maestra where the local women used to wash laundry till mid-20th century.

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#schio #visitschio #schiotourism #placestovisitinschio #beautifulveneto #vicenza #italy

4th Schio Biennale of Papermade Art 2019-20

The 4th edition of the Schio Biennale focusing on Papermade exhibition is going on at Fogazzaro Palace in Schio. It is a biannual art exhibition on paper art.

This post is about my favourite 15 art works from the 2019-20 Papermade exhibition. 

The Theme of Papermade 2019-20

The theme of 4th edition of Papermade curated by Valeria Bertesina is "Beauty in the non-essential". Art and beauty may be seen as unnecessary, even superfluous, but I feel that art and beauty add life to our lives. Prehistoric humans understood it, when they made cave art, necklaces out of colourful beads and painted figures on earthenware.

This exhibition started in October 2019 and will finish on 9 February 2020 (Note: it has been extended till 13 April 2020). It includes two special events - (1) a series of "sculptures" by Joseph Rossi which re-interpret some iconic & provocative works of the well-known Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, and (2) a mini- exhibition of 15 artists from Finland. The image above presents "Him" by Joseph Rossi, which was a re-interpretation of the Maurizio Cattelan sculpture (2001) of a school boy with the face of Hitler kneeling in prayer.

Re-Interpreting Maurizio Cattelan

Joseph Rossi is a graphic artist based in the nearby Thiene. This edition of Papermade is hosting few of his installations, including some which are a homage to the iconic works of Maurizio Cattelan.

Cattelan, a famous artist based in Padova (Padua), has been in the news recently because of his provocative work of "art" which had a banana fixed to the wall with a duct-tape in the "Art Basel" exhibition in Miami Beach USA, which was sold to an unnamed French art collector for 120,000 dollars and eaten by the Georgian performance artist David Datuna. I think that such works are an example of performance art, which may even be seen as a criticism of the way "conceptual art" is dominating the various recent biennales.

The image above presents another of Joseph Rossi's re-interpretation of Cattelan's provocative works - of the 1999 wax sculpture called "Ninth Hour" which showed Pope John Paul II lying dead crushed by a meteorite.

Finnish Artists in Papermade

There are works of 15 well-known artists from Finland in this Papermade exhibition. They range from art-works with pastel and ink on different kinds of paper, to etching, mezzotint and digital prints. They also include 2 installations - (1) Trio Schio, a paper-meche work by Arja Jappinen; and (2) Beauty, an assemblage including cut paper and origami by Jouni Boucht (in the image below).

Among all the other Finnish artists, my favourite were the 'charcoal on paper' art works by Paula Suominen, presented in the image below.

Another work which I liked very much was called "Land of the Free", made with ink and spray paint by Egs, a well-known graffiti artist from Finland. The image below shows part of this work.

Other Art-works at Papermade

An important presence at Papermade was of the Australian artist Giuseppe Romeo. His cockroach-like origami "sculptures" with a metallic finish, greeted visitors on the stairs and spread over the exhibition, on the floors and the walls, looking like an infestation.

I liked the colours and vivacity of the collages by the Italian artist Elsa Pietrelli.

I was touched by the digital print of a woman's face by the Vietnamese artist Quang Pham Khac, who explained that it was an image of his wife, which he has been making in different forms over the recent period to cope up with her death.

I loved the colours and feelings evoked by the series of paintings/collages by Silvio Cattani inspired by the poetry of the famous Russian poet Sergej Yesenin.

The tropical foliage (below) and the human figures created by Canadian artist Zachari Logan in his "Eunuch Tapestrieses", with pastel art-work on black paper, were visually very striking because of their vivid colours and details.

I am not a fan of the "conceptual art". Even in this exhibition, there were a couple of such installations, which I felt were unexciting and a kind of lazy art. However, I liked the idea behind Iginio Iurilli's simple installation called "Exploding tomato sauce can" (below).

I liked the prints from etchings/woodcut/Relief by Tribhuvan Kumar Dev from India, Haladaj Wieslaw from Poland, Linda Whitney from USA (presented in the image below), Marco Trentin & Leonardo Marenghi from Italy and Yuji Hiratsuka from Japan.

Finally, I liked the tiny and exquisite water-colours of birds by Michela Moretto (below).

For this post I have presented pictures of 15 art-works which I had liked. However, I am very much aware of my own fickle subjectivity - on another day, I would have chosen other art-works. If I ask you to choose your favourite art-works from this exhibition, surely your choice would be different from these 15 works!

Conclusions

I think that this edition of Papermade has a lot to see, admire and think. Generally speaking, in an exhibition on paper art, I would like to see works which use paper in innovative ways and not just as a background to make prints or to paint with ink, pastels or water-colours. In that sense, there were not many new ideas in the exhibition. However, if you visit it with an expectation of seeing art which stimulates you and makes you reflect, you won't be disappointed.

Let me conclude this post with two cut-paper origami inspired works - the delicate "Between you and I" by Susanna Doccioli (above), and the gossamer "Suspended Labyrinth" by Susy Manzo (below).

The exhibition is open till 9 February 2020 (Note: it has been extended till 13 April 2020), so if you are visiting Schio, do not miss it. It is a 5 minutes walk from the railway station. 

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