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(wind howls)
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(upbeat adventurous music)
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(celebratory adventurous music)
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(inquisitive music)
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- [Richard] Our journey
begins in Northern Italy,
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at Verona, the city of Romeo and Juliet,
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before heading east, past
vineyards and castles,
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to the cultural jewel of Padua.
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From there, it's east
along the Brenta Canal
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to the Venetian Lagoon,
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and Venice, one of the most
famous cities in the world,
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which has stood for over 1,500 years.
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North of the city are the
southern foothills of the Alps,
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and a whole series of
historic villas around Asolo.
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Our journey ends at Vicenza,
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the home of one of the greatest
late-Renaissance architects,
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whose buildings in the city
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have influenced architecture
around the world for centuries.
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(triumphal horn music)
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Verona, on the River Adige,
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has a history stretching
back to Roman times,
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and in the center of the
city is the amphitheater.
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Also simply known as the Arena,
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it's one of the biggest and
best-preserved amphitheaters
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from the time of the Roman Empire.
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It was built in the 1st century A.D.
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and held about 25,000 people,
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who came here to watch gladiators
often fight to the death.
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The reason that the Arena is
in such a good state of repair
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is that back in the 16th century,
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the people of Verona
realized its importance,
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and so decided to restore and preserve it.
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Today, a more peaceful use
has been found for the Arena,
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as it is used each year
for opera performances
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during July and August.
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The audience sits on long
marble bench-type seats,
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so a well-padded cushion
is an essential extra,
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especially when a long
production is anticipated.
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Almost everywhere you go in Verona
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there is history to discover,
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whether a church,
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a bit of Roman architecture,
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or one of the old gateways into the city.
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And guarding the Ponte di Castel Vecchio
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is the old castle itself.
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Over the centuries,
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this medieval fortress has
witnessed several invasions,
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and as a result it's
been altered and changed,
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including being modernized
by Napoleon Bonaparte
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when he captured the city in 1805.
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In the Piazza della Erbe
is the Torre Lamberti,
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which stands at 83 meters.
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Its construction began in 1172,
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and at the top of the tower
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are the old Rengo and Marangona
bells, from the 15th century
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which still ring out over the city.
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The tower sits on the
corner of the town hall,
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and overlooks a thriving marketplace
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for all sorts of goods and produce.
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(triumphal horn music)
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Almost as tall as the Lamberti Tower
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is the campanile, or bell tower,
of the Verona's cathedral.
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This was begun in the 16th century,
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and has taken over 400
years to finally complete.
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(triumphal horn music)
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The cathedral itself was
begun in the year 1117,
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and replaced several earlier churches
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stretching back over 700 years.
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On the north bank of the river
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is the semi-circular Roman theater,
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and the most important in Northern Italy.
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It was built around the
same time as the Arena.
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Restoration began in the 19th century,
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and today the theater is
used in the summer months
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for a season of Shakespeare plays,
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particularly Romeo and Juliet,
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who are said to have lived in the city.
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With so much history and culture
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packed into its ancient streets,
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it's no wonder that Verona has become
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such a popular place to visit.
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To the west, and we enter
a landscape of vines,
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and a fortified town of Soave,
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which has given its name
to a dry white wine.
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The 14th century castle,
surrounded by vineyards,
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overlooks the fortified town
at the bottom of the hill.
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Close by is the town of Lonigo,
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with its ancient church and bell tower.
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Its overlooked by an
important and beautiful villa,
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and one of many that we will see
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on this journey across the
Veneto region of Italy.
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(calm strings music)
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This is the Villa Rocca,
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built for the rich Pisani family
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in the early 16th century.
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It was designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi,
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a pupil of one of the
world's greatest architects,
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Andrea Palladio, whose
work we will see later on.
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It's hard to believe,
looking at this building,
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that it was not designed in
the 18th or 19th centuries.
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This recreation of classical ideas
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from designs of ancient Roman temples,
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and then turned into
houses, was revolutionary.
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Even though the Villa Rocca
was designed as a house,
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it was not actually
intended as a place to live,
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but rather somewhere
to visit in the summer
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for a meal with friends,
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and then idle away a sunny afternoon.
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This elegant design has a
portico recessed into the house,
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creating a simple square shape.
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A rare survival in the
villa is the oculus,
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a circular opening on the top
which lets the hot air out,
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so creating a cool draft
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drawn through the large,
glass-less windows.
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This is an effective natural
air conditioning device.
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When it rains at the Villa Rocca,
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the water falls down through
a stone grille in the hall,
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and is collected in a
trough in the basement.
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20 miles to the east is Padua,
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said to be the oldest
city in Northern Italy.
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It's also one of Europe's
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great cultural and artistic destinations.
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(pastoral classical music)
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Work by some of the
Renaissance's best-known artist
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still reside in the city's many churches,
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including the great cathedral.
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The Basilica of St. Anthony of
Padua was begun around 1232,
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just one year after the
death of St. Anthony,
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who died in the city.
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The building has a mixture of styles
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due to successive
additions and rebuilding,
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but the feel, with the domed roofs,
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is of a Byzantine appearance.
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Another surprising roof
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is on the Palazzo della
Ragione, Padua's town hall.
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It's reputed to have
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the largest roof unsupported
by columns in Europe.
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The initial building, begun
in 1172, had three roofs.
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100 years the later, the
single roof was put up,
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and it's still standing,
over 700 years later.
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The Prato della Valle
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is one of the largest squares in Italy,
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and was created in the late 18th century,
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and is a much-loved place
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for the people of Padua to meet and walk.
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Running out of the city to
the east is the Brenta Canal,
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which connects Padua to the sea.
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For part of its length, it's
lined with large villas,
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built by wealthy Venetian nobles
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who wished to escape the
heat and smell of Venice
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during the summer.
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(light classical music)
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One of the grandest is the Villa Pisani,
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built in the early 18th century.
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The main front of the house
was designed to impress,
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and commands the site
on a bend in the canal.
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The style is Baroque, with
all its architectural detail
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of statues, pillars, and ornamentation.
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Behind the house is a further
site to impress visitors
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in the form of a long canal
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leading to another
impressive Baroque building,
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which actually just disguises
a rather plain stable block.
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Today, the Villa Pisani
is a national museum,
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and can be enjoyed by everyone.
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The Brenta Canal leads
to the Venetian Lagoon,
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an inland sea protected by
a thin strip of islands.
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The central strip is called the Lido,
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and became a popular holiday
resort in the 19th century.
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Each year, the Venice Film Festival
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is held on this particular island.
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But, seemingly floating in
the middle of the lagoon
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is one of the world's
greatest attractions,
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and one of the few cities
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which can genuinely be
called unique: Venice.
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("Canon in D" by Johann Pachelbel)
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A 19th century Russian
writer visiting Venice wrote,
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"to build a city where it's
impossible to build a city
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"is madness in itself,
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"but to build there
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"one of the most elegant
and grandest of cities
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"is the madness of genius."
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Venice began its life because,
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as the Roman Empire collapsed
in the fifth century,
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and the barbarian invaded,
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people sought safety in the lagoon,
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and began to build houses on wooden piles.
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From then on, as Venice expanded,
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every building was built
on these wooden piles,
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sunk into the mud of the lagoon.
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For centuries,
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the heart of social and
political life in the city
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was the Piazza San Marco.
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It's where the Basilica
of San Marco was built
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in the ninth century, to
house the body of St. Mark.
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00:11:23,530 --> 00:11:24,880
Overlooking the piazza
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is St. Mark's Campanile, or bell tower.
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It was built in 1514,
but collapsed in 1902,
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and then rebuilt in the same style.
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In past times, the supreme
authority in Venice was the doge,
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and their palace was built at
the end of the 14th century.
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When later, as more
prison space was needed,
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a bridge connected the
palace to the prison.
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It was named the Bridge of Sighs,
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as prisoners supposedly sighed
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with their last view
of the beautiful city.
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In the summer months,
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the city almost heaves
with the number of visitors
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who come to marvel at this
extraordinary city in the sea.
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("Canon in D" by Johann Pachelbel)
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Tourism has been a factor
in the economy of Venice
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since the 18th century,
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due to its art and architecture.
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In those days,
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there were only a few
thousand visitors a year.
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Today, over 7 million people arrive by air
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at the Marco Polo Airport, on
the north side of the lagoon.
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Some arrive by train,
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which crosses the causeway
to the station built in 1924,
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and one of the few modern
buildings in the city.
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As there are no roads
in Venice, only canals,
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the only way of getting
about, apart from walking,
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is by boat,
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people use water buses and water taxis,
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ambulances, police vehicles,
and fire engines are all boats,
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every delivery throughout
the city is made by boat.
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At times, it seems like chaos,
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but there are surprisingly few accidents.
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Amongst all these boats
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is the city's most
famous one, the gondola,
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00:13:14,060 --> 00:13:16,820
and of course the gondolier.
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Back in the 17th century
there were around 10,000.
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Today there are just over 400,
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00:13:23,610 --> 00:13:26,740
and each gondolier has
to know Venetian history
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and be able to handle a gondola
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in the tight spaces of the canals.
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The busiest thoroughfare in the city
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is the S-shaped Grand Canal.
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The shape probably
follows the ancient river
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that once flowed through the marshes.
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Lining the banks of the
four-kilometer canal
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are over 170 buildings,
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mostly dating from the
13th to the 18th centuries.
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Most of these palazzos were built
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to show off the owner's wealth and status,
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and cost a small fortune to build.
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00:14:02,630 --> 00:14:04,100
Until the 19th century,
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only the Rialto Bridge
crossed the Grand Canal.
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The present bridge was built in 1591,
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00:14:10,230 --> 00:14:12,020
and has two rows of shops on it.
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00:14:13,090 --> 00:14:15,100
It was predicted to fall down,
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but has stood for over 400 years.
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In the main districts of Venice,
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there are over 100 churches,
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many of them architectural masterpieces.
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(triumphal choral music)
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♪ Gloria ♪
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♪ Gloria ♪
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- [Richard] One of the most important
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is the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore,
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on a small island opposite St. Mark's.
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There has been a church
here since the 10th century,
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but in 1565, Andrea Palladio,
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an architect we will hear much more of
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later in this journey,
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replaced the old Gothic church
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with this striking classical design.
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The foundation stone was laid
in the presence of the Pope.
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The bell tower fell down in 1774,
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and was rebuilt in a similar style
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to the one in the Piazza San Marco.
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From the top are wonderful
views over the city.
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As Venice became richer and more powerful,
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it needed ships to trade,
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and warships to protect them
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as the city inevitably attracted enemies.
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The Venetian Arsenal certainly existed
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in the early 13th century,
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and may well have been
around much earlier.
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Up until the late 18th century,
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this was the largest
industrial complex in Europe,
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building ships in an almost
assembly-line process,
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unique for its times.
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00:15:48,599 --> 00:15:51,279
(militaristic drum music)
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00:15:51,280 --> 00:15:55,700
By 1450, over 3,000 Venetian
ships were in operation,
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both as supply vessels,
as well as warships.
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This massive fleet led to Venice becoming
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the greatest commercial power
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the European world had yet seen.
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This power ended when the city,
and its surrounding islands,
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were conquered by Napoleon in 1797.
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It was only in 1866 that
the city finally became
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part of the newly-created
Kingdom of Italy.
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40 miles north of Venice
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are the southern foothills of the Alps,
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and in this hilly landscape
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are a number of beautiful villas
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from the 16th to 18th centuries.
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A few were designed by Andrea Palladio,
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and have since become
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some of the most important historic houses
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not only in Italy, but worldwide.
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One of Palladio's best works
is the Villa Emo, at Fanzolo.
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His brilliance was his use
of mathematical proportions,
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and his simplicity of style.
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(pastoral strings music)
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The villa was designed for the
Emo family as a working farm,
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and Palladio created the two
wings for agricultural use,
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with access under a colonnade,
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for cover from the sun,
as well as the rain.
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It's hard to believe,
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looking at the clean lines
of this classical building,
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that it was completed, as
we see it today, in 1565.
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This was an age when
most of Western Europe
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was still building wood-beamed
houses and fortified manors.
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The impact that Palladio's houses had
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on visiting architects was enormous.
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From the 18th century to today
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they have come from across Europe,
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and as far afield as the United States.
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The Villa Emo is now
a world heritage site.
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Another of Palladio's houses
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is seven miles other the north, at Maser.
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It's also a world heritage site.
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This is the Villa Barbaro,
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which is also known as the Villa di Maser.
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It was completed in 1558,
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a few years before Palladio
began work on the Villa Emo.
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Here, the central section was inspired by
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an ancient temple in Rome,
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and adapted for domestic use,
which was Palladio's genius.
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The main block is then
flanked by two wings,
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which have two floors,
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but fronted by an open colonnade.
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As at the Villa Emo,
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the lower rooms were for estate business,
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and the upper rooms were
private living quarters.
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At the rear of the house
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is a spring-fed grotto, or nympheum.
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Palladio did not really involve
himself in garden design,
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and this pretty addition
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was probably the conception
of the Barbaro family.
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This masterpiece of
late-Renaissance architecture
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is open to the public all year round.
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One of the greatest Neoclassical sculptors
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of the 19th century was Antonio Canova,
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who was born in Possagno,
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at the foothills of the Alps.
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Towards the end of his life
he returned to his birthplace,
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and in 1819, began to build
this Neoclassical temple
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as a Christian church
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(somber choral music)
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His inspiration came from
the Pantheon in Rome,
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which started life as a pagan temple,
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but then became an early Christian church.
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The portico was inspired by
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the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens.
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In this way, Canova exalted the art
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of three great civilizations,
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Christian art, Roman art, and Greek art.
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Little did he know when he
started work on the temple
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that he was actually
building his own mausoleum,
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as he died in 1822.
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His body was interred inside
as the building work continued
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on this striking Neoclassical temple,
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which was finally finished in 1830.
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Close to Vicenza, our final destination,
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is the 17th century
villa, Valmarana ai Nani,
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and a very sad legend.
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The ai Nani means, the
dwarves, and the story goes
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that a princess who lived
in the villa was a dwarf,
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and her parents, thinking
it would be kind,
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employed dwarves as her
servants and companions,
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and kept her away from the world outside.
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(melancholy music)
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One day, a prince appeared in the garden,
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and the princess suddenly
realized how small she was,
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and threw herself off the roof.
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Her servants were so
distraught with her death,
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that they became literally
petrified with grief,
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and now stand guard on the villa's walls.
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(somber choral music)
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Also close to Vicenza
is this unusual walkway,
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to a church on top of the hill,
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the Portico del Monte Berico.
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It was built in the 18th
century, and is 700 meters long,
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with 150 arches grouped in sections.
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It not only kept worshipers dry,
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but the arches symbolize the
150 Hail Marys in the rosary.
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In an almost modern marketing deal,
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each arch was sponsored,
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and bears the name of an
individual or organization.
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On the top of the hill
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is the Basilica di Santa
Maria di Monte Berico.
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This 18th century church
replaced a predecessor
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built three centuries earlier.
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It was claimed that the
Virgin Mary appeared
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on this hill in 1426,
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and promised that if the people
of Vicenza built a church,
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she would rid them of the plague.
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A church was constructed
within three months.
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For centuries Vicenza has been
known as the mainland Venice,
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so great is its artistic
and architectural heritage.
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It is perhaps better known
today as the city of Palladio.
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00:22:27,403 --> 00:22:28,913
(calm classical music)
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It was here, in Vicenza,
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that Andrea Palladio lived and worked
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00:22:32,650 --> 00:22:34,670
in the early 16th century,
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and 23 of his buildings
still survive in the city.
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The work that got him noticed
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was the colonnaded outer shell
of the old Gothic town hall.
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It shows one of the first examples
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of what was to become known
as the Palladian window,
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a classical reinterpretation
of Roman designs.
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Next to the renamed Basilica Palladiana
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is a statue of the great architect.
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His buildings can be found
in most of the streets.
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Some stand out, like the
Palazzo del Capitaniato,
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built for the city's
military leader in 1571,
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00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:21,950
and others, such as the Palazzo Thiene,
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built in 1542 around a
colonnaded courtyard,
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almost hidden from view.
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00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:31,760
Another of his influential buildings
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is the Palazzo Chiericati.
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Nothing like this had
been seen at the time
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when construction began in the 1550s.
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Looking at the building today,
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it's possible to see many other
buildings around the world
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which have been inspired by this palazzo.
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However, there is one
building of Palladio's
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which has perhaps been more
influential than any other.
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00:23:57,110 --> 00:23:59,930
From a modest entrance of a quiet lane,
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a straight drive leads to
the Villa Almerico Capra,
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00:24:03,470 --> 00:24:06,150
better known as the Villa Rotonda.
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00:24:06,149 --> 00:24:09,649
(triumphal Baroque music)
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00:24:14,840 --> 00:24:16,850
This house has probably inspired
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00:24:16,850 --> 00:24:19,240
a thousand subsequent buildings,
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00:24:19,240 --> 00:24:23,240
but Palladio's inspiration
came from the Pantheon in Rome.
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00:24:23,240 --> 00:24:26,470
He adapted the design to
include four porticoes,
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00:24:26,470 --> 00:24:27,960
because, in his words,
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one takes pleasure in the
beautiful view on all four sides.
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00:24:32,670 --> 00:24:34,230
The building is square,
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with a circular central
hall open to all four sides.
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00:24:37,877 --> 00:24:41,377
(triumphal Baroque music)
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Building began in 1567,
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00:24:45,270 --> 00:24:48,720
however Palladio and the
owner, Paolo Almerico,
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were not to see the finished villa,
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00:24:50,700 --> 00:24:52,760
as both died before its completion.
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00:24:55,170 --> 00:24:58,500
His assistant of many
years, Vincenzo Scamozzi,
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oversaw the villa's completion,
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including the dome, with its open oculus,
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00:25:03,330 --> 00:25:06,290
but now covered with a
cupola from a later century.
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00:25:07,950 --> 00:25:10,290
Palladio's vision of a classical past
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00:25:10,290 --> 00:25:12,160
adapted to domestic living
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00:25:12,160 --> 00:25:14,840
has been perfected in this building.
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00:25:14,840 --> 00:25:16,240
He is now considered
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one of the world's
greatest ever architects,
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and his houses, particularly
the Villa Rotonda,
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have been a source of inspiration
for architects ever since,
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a perfect place to end this journey.
460
00:25:37,477 --> 00:25:41,057
(relaxing classical music)
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00:26:00,814 --> 00:26:03,484
(logo whooshes)
34535
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