Brion Family Tombs and Vicenza

Hopping on a water bus without a ticket, the day of travel started a little sketchy, aka worried I was going to get thrown off the boat. But it turned out luck was in my favor and the group and I arrived at the Venezia train station with all 23 students still dry. The goal of the day was to venture out to the distant little town of San Vito in Northern Italy to visit one of Scarpa's greatest works, which also happened to be his resting grounds. Any architecture student who's spent more than a quarter in any modern design studio know the grace, elegance, and seeming perfection of Scarpa's Brion Tombs. So though the day was full of train transfers, catchings buses, and traveling from small towns to smaller towns, it was well worth it when we finally passed a corn field and stumbled upon the carefully detailed gate to the tombs. What a treat it was to walk around and enjoy the craftsmanship, the careful layout, and the peaceful stillness that was so calming after a day of travel and the busyness of Venice the day before. After thoroughly photographing every square inch of the complex before my camera finally died, I just sat and took my time steching interesting details and pieces of the building that were the most interesting. If you haven't checked out my pictures yet, I would definitely advise checking out the Brion album. Its pretty stunning even though my pictures didn't do it justice.
After the amazing hour or so soaking up the Scarpa-ness, we regrouped at the bus to decide what our next move would be. I thought it would be a great idea to, instead of go back to Venice and stay up all night, to go to Vicenza and find a cheap room to stay. 14 or so of my classmates agreed with the idea and we headed off. Getting there was an easy train ride, and finding a hotel was just as successful. We broke off into a couple groups to search for hostels, groceries, and maps and all went with out a hitch. We got our hotel rooms, dropped off our stuff, and went to the local Coop (one of two chain grocery stores in Italy and Switzerland, but its the one that sells alcohol too). Each of us emerged from the store with a bag full of picnic supplies in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other. Wandering down to the park, we found a spot and proceeded to destroy the fine spread of breads, cheeses, meats, olives and other such goodies laid out in front of us. Needless to say, I did my fine bit of damage to the feast and sat back quite content.
We went for a round-about walk after dinner and returned to the hotel to take showers and gather together to play another round of drinking games, without the speed or amount of wine as in Venice though. The night ended with a good round of truth or dare, which of course meant one of my male classmates wearing a beautiful dress and scarf and being paraded down the street. Luckly, I wasn't as drunk as the night before and after a block or two of laughing, took my cue to head back and crash.
The next morning we had some time to kill before catching the bus back home, so we wandered around, exploring some of the Palladio that dotted the town. If you know much about art or architectural history, you'll know about Palladio. His writings and buildings revolutionized architecture and the evidence was quite clear in Vicenza. However, by the time we covered most of the Palladio, we were starving. My friend and I decided that the fried fish stand in the middle of the near by piazza smelled too good to pass up and for 5 euro purchased a kilo and a half of the best fried fish I've had in years (well, I was really hungry, which might have altered by taste buds a bit). Washing our hands and grabbing our bags, we rushed off to the train station to make it back to Muggio in time to catch the last bus up to Scudellate.