But one of the
greatest curiosities in this ancient city is the immense Saloon in the
_Palazzo della Giustizia_. It is, I presume, the loftiest and largest hall
in the world that is supported by nothing but its walls, it being three
hundred feet long, one hundred feet broad and one hundred feet high. In
the Saloon is the tomb of Livy, the Historian, who was a native of Padua.
The inhabitants of Padua dress much in black, seem a quiet, staid sort of
people, and are very industrious. I put up at the _Stella d'Oro_, a good
inn.
VICENZA, 10th June.
I arrived at this beautiful _bijou_ of a town on the morning of the 9th
June at eight o'clock. I call it a _bijou_ from its exceeding neatness, and
the extreme beauty of the architecture of its edifices, which are almost
all after the designs of Palladio, of white stone and in the Greek taste.
Palladio was a native of Vicenza. The _Piazza_ and _Palazzo Pubblico_
perfectly correspond with the beauty of the rest of the city, and the
promenades about it are tastefully laid out. But the two most striking
objects in point of edifices in Vicenza and both constructed by Palladio
are the covered portico and the _Teatro Olimpico_.
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