Please tell me about Vicenza

It's a nice town for sure, and it feels different from other Italian towns nearby, perhaps because of Palladio's architecture and without the tourist mobs of Vernoa. We all have different travel styles, but personally I think I'd be bored for two nights there. I visited for an afternoon; one night would have been plenty for me.

Thank you both. I don’t think we will have any problem with boredom; just seeing a few Palladio sites and wandering around, stopping at Bar Borsa for that aperitivo, etc. will certainly fill our one full day there.

I did see Hotel Campo Marzio and its very convenient location between the train station and the center (including Piazza deli Signori). One review on booking.com mentions a population of “candy men” (drug dealers) nearby, I suppose on Viale Roma, or in the park-like campo. I guess we could just ignore them; I know they do not present any danger to us. I’ll see what the hotel has available for our dates.

I liked Vicenza, but I found considerably more to do in Padua. There might still be enough for you in Vicenza if you feel about Palladian architecture the way I feel about Art Nouveau.

FWIW we took a bus directly to Marco Polo from Padova Brad

We spent a week - maybe more, brain cells fail me - in lovely Vicenza. We used it for a base for the many places in the countryside nearby and Vicenza itself.

We stayed with Bob and Jenny (and progeny) several years ago and it looks like Bob hasn't updated the website much since, and hasn't added the https so you can see an unsecure warning but I am sure it is fine. http://www.bed-breakfast-italy.com/

Great folks, occasional summer BBQs in the garden (he's American but has been in Vicenza for donkeys years, I don't remember which country she is originally from), it is all on the extremely comprehensive website (think of Ron in Rome's previous Rome website and you'll see what I mean), and simple and nice rooms. And a washer. They used to have an apartment in a nearby building but this was of course all pre-covid. Our Jasmine in our garden was an idea we took from them - they had a whole hedge of the stuff...

The Rotunda is in very short walking distance - they are a short distance just out of the centre. We walked every morning to a local bar/coffee place that looked like it had been there forever and loved the ambiance and the coffee, simple Italian coffee. We never become locals but it sure felt like it.

We'd go back in a heartbeat. (I never liked that park you mention). If you have a car there are wonderful little towns nearby, mentioning Bassano del Grappa among others, and towards Padova is the resting place and town that Cannova the sculptor lived in. His former house is now a museum and there are casts of all of his works on display.

Like I said, in a heartbeat.

forgot to mention - in summer (or basically not winter) there are loads of jazz clubs and other sources of live music coming out of many a door along many of the lanes and roads in the centre. Very melodious and happy it was too.

A city that seems to love that it was what it was.

Decent gelato too...

I spent 3 nights there May 2017 for a festival of jazz; It was ok kind of quiet. I only took a few photos that you can see if you want:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/itY2eKyWcr8APWQJA

From Nigels excellent post above “ towards Padova is the resting place and town that Cannova the sculptor lived in. His former house is now a museum and there are casts of all of his works on display.”

The town is Possagno, reachable by bus from Bassano del Grappa. The Canova museum is great, and gives an insight into how marble statues are created. It’s more complex than just buying a block of marble and then just hammering off the bits that are not, well, David or Laocoon & Sons.

The museum is called the Gypsoteca, gypsum as in plaster. (In Aus, Gyprock is the generic term for what Americans call drywall.)

The Gypsoteca saw a great renovation designed by Carlo Scarpa, Venice’s best known modern architect. Brilliant design, pumping light into the space. If Scarpa grabs you, the Querini in Venice and the Brion Mausoleum at Altivole are worth a visit, ditto the typewriter shop in the Piazza in Venice; look for Olivetti chiseled above the side door.

Forgot to mention - in the Cannova museum there are also a handful of his paintings and drawings in the smaller rooms.

I think we spent a total of about 2 hours there, and we were nearly the only people there, early summer pre covid.

I’m not going to be pedantic re Nigel, but (when someone shoves “but” into a sentence, ignore all words prior to “but”), the marble statue process is fascinating. It is quite the industry.
1. Make a clay model, a miniature of the proposal, and get the Client approval.
2. Make a full sized model, on a steel armature using clay. Clay is good, as it can be kept workable for months.
3. Get client approval again, and probably some lire against a progress claim.
4. Send the model to the gypsum dudes, specialist contractors, and they take impressions of the clay model.
5. The gypsum model is returned, and an apprentice bangs a number of nails made of lead into the model. Eyes, tip of nose, elbows, a finger. Those nails create a 3D matrix of the model.
6. Obtain marble.
7. Hammer off chunks, using the 3D lead nail points as reference for measurements.
8. OK, apprentices, enough. Get the man tondo his magic.
9. Enter stage left, Canova. Magic ensures.

The result, a heart achingly beautiful object.