Roberto Sperotto - A Passion for History

The Vicenza-Schio railway line completes 150 years in 2026. It was built in 1876 to facilitate transport of cargo from numerous wool mills of Schio. During early 1900s, this railway line had different extensions including to Pieve Bel Vicino, Piovene Rocchette, Arsiero and Asiago.

To celebrate this 150th anniversary, recently an exhibition was organised in Schio, which presented the historical collection of documents and photographs of Roberto Sperotto.

 

I had an opportunity to talk to Roberto to about his passion for the history of this region around late 1800s and early 1900s, especially related to the period of the first world war.

This post is about Roberto Sperotto and his passion for history.

Alto Vicentino and the World War One

The area around Vicenza is known as Vicentino. The north-west part of Vicentino has the Alps, specifically the Little Dolomites and is known as Alto Vicentino (High Vicentino) because of its higher altitude.

 

Till early 1900s, the Alps mountains of Alto Vicentino marked the border between the Austro-Hungarian empire and Italy. This border was the site of different battles during World War One.

For example, you can check my posts on the War Cemeteries of Alto Vicentino and on the Centenary of Pasubio War Memorial.

Talking to Roberto Sperotto

Roberto was born and lives in Breganze, some kms to the west of Schio, an area known for its beautiful rolling hills and vineyards. He runs an agency in Breganze for driving licences and their renewals.

Roberto's key interest has been in the crucial role, engineering skill, and heroic contributions of the Italian military engineering corps (Arma del Genio) during World War I, and he has been collecting documents and photographs about it in Alto Vicentino. His collection about the local railway lines is part of WWI collection, as the railways had played a big role in the war. 

 

About his archival collection about history of Alto Vicentino around the first World War, Roberto explained, "There was an old house in the periphery of Rocchette, and I discovered that it was one of the buildings of the Rocchette-Asiago railway line. I started reading about the old railway lines and gradually collected different documents and photographs to have a global view of these railway lines and its different aspects, in relation to the world war."

Initially all these railway lines to Schio and its extensions belonged to a private society, "Società Veneta", and were nationalised in 1906. Alessandro Rossi, well-known industrialist of Schio running different wool-mills in this area, played a key role in their construction.

Initially the railway lines were built in narrow gauge because they were near the border with the Austro-Hungarian empire and they felt that these could be used to attack them. Thus, the main Italian railway with its broad gauge could not be used to bring munitions and heavy machinery to the border.

Roberto took me around the exhibition, sharing anecdotes about how he had managed to collect different pictures and documents, how specific parts of the railway lines were built, how the railway lines were used during the war. For example, he explained that the Austrian troops were on a higher level and thus, the Italian army thought that they could have poisoned the water of the torrents coming down and thus, preferred to carry water up the railway line to Asiago.

Roberto's Archives in His Books 

Roberto has a big archive of documents & photographs about this region and has written 3 books about the history of Alto Vicentino during World War I - 

(1) 1915-1918 War Railway Lines in Vicentino (1915-1918 - Ferrovie di Guerra Nel Vicentino) - written with Francesco Brazzale, published by Edizioni Grafiche Leoni, 2014: The book starts with the difficulties caused by limited railway lines in this part of Italy when the war between Austria and Italy was declared in May 2015. A couple of images about the railway line in Schio from this book are presented below.  

(2) The War Villas - 6th Armed Division & Military Engineering Corps (Ville di Guerra - La 6a Armata e il Genio), published by Edizioni Grafiche Leoni, 2018: This book looks at the villas located along the old Gasparona road connecting Thiene to Marostica and their role in the World War One, and how these were taken over by the military commands during the war. This book focuses especially on the 6th Army which included Italian, French, British and Czechoslovakian troops. 

(3) The Ferrarin Cousins - Men and Pilots (I Cugini Ferrarin - Uomini e Piloti), written with Roberto Mantiero, published by Grafiche Leoni sas, 2020: This book shares documents and pictures of Italian air-force pilots during the WWI, especially Francesco Ferrarin & Arturo Ferrarin, along with others like Leonello Marani, Girolamo Allegri,  Luigi Bourlot. The book also touches on the role of the well-known Italian writer, poet and Journalist, Gabriele d'Annunzio in the war.

Historical Images of Schio from the Book by Roberto Sperotto

Roberto's books are a rich source of historical images and documents from that period. As an example, two images from Sperotto's book "1915-1918 - Ferrovie di Guerra Nel Vicentino" are presented below, which are about the railway station of Schio.

(1) The first is an illustration about the visit of Prince Umberto in Schio for the inauguration of the Vicenza-Schio railway line in 1876. (click on the image for a bigger view)

 

(2) The second is an image of families leaving Schio as the first world war broke out in the nearby Pasubio mountains in Spring 1916.

 

In Conclusion

Roberto shows that persons moved by their passions can be an invaluable resource for collecting and safeguarding the micro-histories of small places, that are usually ignored by official historians and record-keepers working at international, national and regional levels.  

For the persons of Alto Vicentino, Roberto's photographic and documental archives are a wonderful resource about a crucial period of their local history.  

 *****

Schio - Yesterday & Today

The inspiration for this post came from a guided tour of the city centre held on 10 May 2026, in which Chiara from Cooperativa Trama spoke about some forgotten stories of places, people and events from the centre of Schio during the past few centuries.

During this visit, I learned about the printing press of Paolo Marzari, located near the railway station, who had become famous for his picture postcards, sold all over Italy, in late 19th and early 20th century. This was a period of big changes in Schio, especially due to the development of wool factories of local industrialist, Alessandro Rossi. For example, the railways connecting Schio to Vicenza was built around 1876 and inaugurated by Prince Umberto. The road in front of the railway station leading to the central Piazza Rossi was built some years later.

During the 1980s, the municipality of Schio published a book (Schio: Immagini del Primo '900,  Dall'Archio Fotografico P. Marzari, 1982) about the photographic archives of Marzari. For this post I have taken some of the images from this book and compared them with how those places look today.

Photographs Used for This Post

All the black and white images used in this post are from the above-mentioned book about the photographic archives of Paolo Marzari. (click on the images for a bigger view)

All the colour photographs next to each B/W image are mine. The main reasons why it was not possible to take my images from the same exact place from where the B/W pictures were clicked - some old buildings are no more and many new buildings and trees are in their place.

At the Castello

I have selected 2 images from the Castello hill of Schio - first is the high school built there in early 20th century which now hosts the Liceo delle Science Umane (Human Sciences high school). The passage shown in the B/W image is now closed with an iron grill surrounding the school. (click on the images for a bigger view)

 

The second image is at top of the hill with its clock tower and the Santa Maria della Neve church (St Mary of the Snows church) and the old big Tiglio (Lime) tree, which was removed in early 1900s. There were two big trees and because of them, this area was called Tajara in the local dialect. There were few trees at that time, which were planed mainly after the second world war and now make this hill very beautiful due to the autumn leaves.  

Santa Maria della Salute Chapel

This 15th century chapel was located along the path which came down from the Castello hill and was separated by walls as it passed the Brolo (fields) of Count Da Schio, and went towards the old TB hospital and St. Francis church. Underneath the chapel is the Gaminella water-spring that led to a small pond.

 

Today the walls around the Chapel are gone, a lot more trees are there and only the initial part of Gaminella water-spring is visible close to the chapel, the rest of the spring water lies underneath Via Gaminella in front of the chapel.

Around Duomo church and Piazza Rossi 

Duomo church from 15th century and the square in front of it, Piazza Rossi, are the centre of Schio. It used to a closed square with two exits - the road going to the west, called Corobbo (today Via Carducci) and the road going towards the town and Castello (today Piazza Garibaldi). The next image shows road in front of Piazza Rossi going towards Corobbo, in which Via Capitano Sella was opened.

The next image shows Via Cavour, running next to the Duomo church, which has changed very little.

 

The image below has Via Garibaldi seen from the Garibaldi square.

 

The next image has a view of Via Battaglione Leogra and Piazza IV Novembre, with its monument to the Pasini brothers. This road was built in 1900 and connected Piazza Rossi with the railway station and was first called Via Umberto, to remember the inauguration of the railway station by prince Umberto.

It used to have a Covered Market (Mercato Coperto), now replaced by a bank. There used to be an ice-vendor behind the market (Giassaia in local dialect) now remembered in the name of Via Giasara behind the bank.

The next image has Via Battiglione Leogra (this name was given after the second world war) showing the Pasubio printing press, which is no longer there. On the right, the images show the entrance to Piazza Statuto, which hosts the municipal offices of Schio.

 

The next image has Piazza Statuto with Palazzo Garbin which hosts the Municipal offices of local government in Schio.

 

The last image from this part of the city is Casa dei Canarini (the house of the colourful birds) on Via Mazzini, further along the Via Carducci, with frescoes of guards wearing colourful costumes. People believe that this house hosted the centre of city guards, but no evidence has been found for it.

 

The Railway Station and the Roads Around it

The railway station was inaugurated 150 years ago in 1876. It had big freight port for the wool industries of Schio, which now hosts a clothes shop. However the railway station itself has changed very little, except for the buildings behind it and the number of cars in front of it. 

The road in front of the railway station, Via Baccarini, going towards Sant'Antonio church has changed completely and the church is hardly visible from this point, hidden behind the buildings.

 

As we walk from the railway station towards Sant'Antonio, the crossing where Via Baccarini meets Via Maraschin has a roundabout with a monument to Alessandro Rossi. The B/W image below shows the inauguration of this monument made by Giulio Monteverde in 1902, the colour picture next to it has the inauguration of the renovated monument with the mayor Walter Orsi and some members of the Rossi family, on 29 June 2018.

  

Behind the Rossi monument and opposite Sant'Antonio church is a square called Donatori di Sangue (Blood donaters). The next image shows this square and the St. Antonio church.

 

A little further down the road is the Civic Theatre built in 1907-08. It was closed down during the first world war and then during the second world war, but has been renovated a few years ago.

 

Around the Leogra Bridge

First it was a wooden bridge built in 1742, the stone bridge was made in 1852 and it was reinforced and enlarged in 1926. It connected the 2 communes - Schio and Magre, which were combined together under Schio, 2 years later in 1928. Just after the bridge, on the Magre side of Leogra was a Tiro a Segno (shooting range), whose building can be seen from the Schio side in the image below.

 

The shooting range building can be seen from the Magre side in the image below. It now has some monuments to the Italian marines who died in the wars, a big parking and a popular open air bar called Molo 517 that is open in the summers.

 

The third image from this area shows Via Riva di Magre, the road that goes up towards the central areas of Magre.

 

Carrozzeria Luigi dalla Via

The Dalla Via workshop was located beyond the cemetery area of Schio. Started in 1905, it was one of the biggest Italian constructors of the external bodies vans, buses and trucks, but especially of buses. It closed in 2007. The image below shows the workshop area.

Via Baratto

The last image of this post is of Via Baratto taken from the roundabout of Via Rompato, and going towards St Francis church. Even this area has not changed much though because of a busy car parking, I was unable to include the gate on the right side in my image.

 

In The End

Let me conclude this post with the cover of the book from which all the B/W images of the Paolo Marzari's photographic archives have been taken.

I had a lot of fun, going around and trying to get the same or similar views as in the original pictures. Most of the time, it was impossible to get the same view but I feel that these pictures do show that the places are same.

If you live in Schio or are visiting here, I hope that these images help you to get an idea of the changing histories of our urban landscapes.

 

***** 

 

A Forgotten Palladio Villa

When our Book-Reading group proposed a guided tour of the recently renovated Villa Forni-Cerato, I was immediately interested because it is one of the Palladio-buildings. Andrea Palladio was one of the best-known medieval Italian architects who had spear-headed the Italian architectural renaissance in the 16th century. His buildings have inspired architects across the world (for example, the White House in USA was inspired by his Villa Rotonda in Vicenza).

In 1996, UNESCO recognised the Palladio villas as World Heritage sites. There are 24 villas designed by Palladio and the Veneto region in the north-east of Italy, where I live, hosts 16 of them. Villa Forni-Cerati is one of those 16 villas. The city of Vicenza has some of the famous Palladio buildings including the Basilica and the amazing Olympic theatre.

On saturday 6th April 2024, we visited this villa, which is located in Montecchio Precalcino, a 25 minutes drive from Schio (VI) in north-east of Italy. This post is about this beautiful building, its history and architecture.

Why Was Villa Forni Cerato Built?

Villa Forni-Cerato was built in 1565 in Montecchio Precalcino for Girolamo Forni, a timber merchant, originally from Valdastico. It is a mostly rural area, about 20 kms from Vicenza.

Forni was working with Andrea Palladio, supplying the timber for his constructions. Wood-logs from places like Tonezza e Alto Piano of Asiago were used for many of the Palladio buildings including the scaffoldings of the Basilica in Vicenza.

The timber was brought down along the Astico river, which was prone to flooding and thus different dams were built along its course to control the water-flow. Dams became collection-points for the wood-logs brought down by the river. One of the dams was in Montecchio Precalcino where Forni lived and where he had his timber-yard. Thus, from supplying all the timber to Palladio, Girolamo Forni became rich and then he asked Palladio to design a simple villa for him, which was built next to his old house.

Design of Villa Forni-Cerato (VFC)

VFC is a simple villa without flashy adornments and yet, it is like a little jewel for its symmetrical and proportionate design. It was been designed as a cube containing 27 square modules, each side of which is 57.8 cm long, and the whole building can be visualised as a Rubik's cube.

 

The stairs (not the original ones) lead to a loggia on the middle floor of the Villa, with open windows on the two sides, which leads to a central hall with two rooms on the sides and one narrower space between the two, which has the stairs.

Built on three levels, the ground floor had the servants' quarters and the kitchen; the middle floor (the noble floor) was the living areas of the Forni family; and, above, the attic held the granary and stores. The rooms are in 9 modules and each has walls 5.20 metres high, creating huge airy spaces.

Golden Ratio Used in VFC  

When VFC was built, the "Vicentine-foot" measurement (35.7 cm) was used as the measuring tool. Multiplying 35.7 by the Golden-ratio number (1.6180) leads to 57.8 cm, which is the size of cube-sides used for designing and constructing the villa. This might explain why the proportions of this building are so eye-pleasing.

Golden ratio, also known as Divine Proportion (Fibonacci sequence), is very common in nature such as in "human face, flower petals, shells, and the geometrical form of galaxies". It is supposed to produce "a sense of beauty, one of the four human intangibles besides purpose, happiness, and love". (1)

A tile has also been found in the house with an image of "Flower of Life", made from 7 overlapping circles. Both these factors might indicate links of Palladio and/or Forni with groups such as Freemasons or Illuminati during the enlightenment era. (2,3)

Present History

Girolomo Forni didn't have children and after his death, the building went to his sister's Cerato family. Since then the house changed through many owners and was occupied till 1971. The last family living here was Grendene with 10 children. They lived on the ground floor while the middle floor was partially used as a barn to stock hay (the middle floor with high walls and no central heating, would have been too cold for living, especially in winter). Since then the building was abandoned. Finally the building was put up for auction in 2017.

After the first 2 auctions went without a buyer, it was bought by a local entrepreneur from Vicenza, Mr Ivo Boscardin. Ivo explained that he saw an annoucement in the newspaper about the villa-auction and read that no one wanted to buy it, while as a Palladio villa it merited greater recognition. He felt that it represented an important cultural icon for their local history and wanted to safeguard it. Initially, he was hoping to buy it with other partners but in the end, everyone else backed out and so he became its sole owner.

He has created a foundation (Villa Forni-Cerati Foundation) to rennovate and look after this building as he feels that it has an important cultural value for the society and should be properly looked after. 

The Villa Forni-Cerato Foundation needs support and you can make donations for its rennovation by making a bank transfer to the Foundation bank-account (account IBAN code: IT 27D02008 60530 000105470617 - for more details check their website).

Rennovation of Villa Forni-Cerato

During our visit, architect Ms. Francesca Grandi took us around and explained with great passion about the rennovation work and the plans of the building. While the whole building can be visited, so far the upper two floors have been rennovated and the work is on-going. Their aim is to maintain the building as it was, without making any structural changes (such as bringing piped water or electric current or central heating inside the main building).

Another aim is to preserve, as much as possible, the old historical layers, histories, materials and structures of the building. Listening to Francesca talk about conservation of the different layers, highlighted the complex nature of this work and the continuos decisions it requires. For example, if a window in the original Palladio design was subsequently closed with bricks, they need to decide if they should preserve the walled window or restore the original layout?

Over the past few decades, new technologies such as archaeological studies for dating the wood (dendrography) and thermo-luminiscence studies can help in identifying the building materials used for construction in different epochs, including the wood-beams used during Palladio's time. All these technologies are also being used during the rennovation to help understand what changed and when.

Along the centuries and especially during its period of abandonment, some of the old busts and sculptures (for example, the stucco-sculptures and works by Alessandro Vittoria) used in this building were sold or lost. The VFC team has been fortunate to find a bust of Girolamo Forni which had been safe-guarded for 50 years by the neighbours.

Girolamo Forni as an Artist

While Girolamo Forni was a timber merchant, he also loved art and the ideas of humanism. He was also a painter, not for selling his art, but for his passion. Some of his paintings are scattered across the world including in the MET in NY and Palazzo Chiericati in Vicenza. The room, he had used as his studio in VFC, has copies of some of his paintings (in the image below).

One of the sculputures in the Olympic Theatre of Vicenza also carries the name of Girolamo Forni - it shows a bearded man pushing a trunk of wood on the river.

Conclusions

The visit to Villa Forni-Cerati in Montecchio Montalcini was immensely satisfying mainly because of the passionate explainations of our guide, architect Francesca Grandi. The visit was supposed to last one and half hour, it lasted almost 3 hours and still, our group had so many questions to her about the history and rennovation of the building.

I think that Mr Boscardin has been wonderful in investing his money and passion in saving this beautiful building and creating the foundation to ensure its future. I hope that people will contribute to the Villa Forni-Cerato Foundation so that this work can be continued and completed.

References

1. Emund Stefan, Soul and the Golden Proportion, (https://inspirationandenlightenment.com/the-soul-and-the-golden-proportion/ )

2. The Designs of Andrea Palladio for Villa Forni Cerato (https://www.villafornicerato.it/quaderni-di-ricerca/)

3. A study of the harmony of the modules of Villa Forni Cerato (https://www.villafornicerato.it/quaderni-di-ricerca/)

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. (Click on the images for a bigger view)

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 weekends, 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 any more 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.

***