WHERE TOO MANY COLUMNS ARE NEVER ENOUGH – Vicenza

How many columns can you see in this picture? (Keep your answer to yourself.)

Vicenza is the city of Palladio, which means it is also the city of columns.

The Greeks possibly thought of them first, then the Romans copied the Greeks, then in the 16th century architect Andrea Palladio copied the Greeks and Romans and for hundreds of years thereafter every designer of a major public building in the western world copied Mr Palladio.

Columns are handy bike parking spots.

Dress well and walk past columns and you look authoritative.

A colonnade of columns makes a quiet place for a smoke.

…or a drink.

A few columns enhance any garden water feature, making it look…um…Italianate.

Columns lend a sense of gravitas to a scruffy wall. (I’m pretty pleased with this shot.)

Of course, some people are in too much of a hurry to appreciate a good column.

One column on its own can be quite impressive too.

And here’s the gentleman who started it all. Grazie, Signor Palladio!