Palazzo Chiericati

Palazzo Chiericati is Palladio's most unusual town palace and now houses Vicenza's civic art museum, the Museo Civico. Built from 1550 facing what was then the city's timber market, it has a two-storey open colonnade across its whole front -- a country-villa gesture applied to an urban palace, and unlike anything else in the city.

The Card Musei spreads a visitor's money across Vicenza's municipal museums, several of which receive a fraction of the Teatro Olimpico's visitors while carrying the same maintenance costs.

Standard museum rules apply: no flash, and bags to the cloakroom. The building was bomb-damaged and restored, and the frescoed rooms remain the fragile part.

Ticketed as the Museo Civico, and included in the civic Card Musei together with the Teatro Olimpico -- the card is the sensible purchase since the two are a minute apart. Museum hours, closed Mondays outside high season.

Ten minutes' walk from Vicenza railway station along the Corso. Allow an hour and a half for the collection, more if the temporary exhibition interests you.