Andrea Palladio was a stonemason from Padua who became the most copied architect in history, and Vicenza is where he did it. Walk the main street, Corso Palladio, and you are moving through his workshop: palace after palace designed for the local nobility in the sixteenth century, with columns, pediments and proportions that ended up on English country houses, American plantation homes and Washington government buildings. The city and the villas scattered across the surrounding countryside were listed together by UNESCO for exactly that reason.
Start at the Piazza dei Signori, dominated by the Basilica Palladiana. It was not a church at all but the medieval town hall, and Palladio's contribution was the double loggia of white stone he wrapped around it. A short walk away is the Teatro Olimpico, his last project, finished after his death by Vincenzo Scamozzi, with a fixed stage set of streets painted and built in forced perspective that still fools the eye. Then ride up to Monte Berico, the hill just south of the centre, where the basilica terrace gives the best view of the red roofs with the Alps behind on a clear day.
From the foot of that hill a lane leads to La Rotonda, the villa everyone knows even if they do not know its name: a square house with a dome and four identical porticoes, built so its owner could look out over the countryside in every direction. It is the start of a beautiful ride. Head south along the Riviera Berica and into the Colli Berici, small limestone hills crossed by narrow, wriggling roads, vineyards and cherry orchards, with villages that seem to have been forgotten by the motorway just a few kilometres away.
Practicalities are simple in a city of over a hundred thousand people. Fuel is everywhere on the ring roads. The historic centre is a limited traffic zone with cameras at the entrances, so park on the edge and walk in rather than risk a fine arriving by post months later. Summer can be oppressively humid on the Venetian plain; spring and early autumn are kinder.
Eat what the Vicentini eat. Baccalà alla vicentina, dried cod slow-cooked in milk and served with polenta, is the city's signature, and bigoli, thick fresh pasta often served with duck ragù, is the classic first course. A glass of local wine from the Berici hills finishes the argument for staying the night.