franco,

This book is available at Edward R. Hamilton booksellers in Connecticut and for the princely sum of $17.95!! I will be ordering it soonest...

Traviata, hope you'll enjoy it, excellent price!
Eloise, btw, yes, it's "Giandomenico" Tiepolo.

Franco,

Thanks for the "Giandomenico"; the second time I wrote his name, it occurred to me that it probably WAS "Giandomenico".

Many thanks also for the Michelangelo Muraro book recommendation. I just looked it up on www.abebooks.com (you might want to look into it as a Web site for used books...), and the photographer, Paolo Marton, also did the photographs in my book "Palladio".

I'm astonished that no one thought Vicenza was charming. We visited two years ago in September and it was wonderful. The Palladian architecture extraordinary and the town seemed bustling, lovely and very REal, unlike Verona, which seems like a total tourist place. We saw almost no tourists, surprisingly, and were really well treated. There's an absence of nice hotels that's too bad. We stayed in Campo Marzio. Convenient, but unless you're in the theme rooms, it's blah, but ok. There's a really charming inn up the hill (S. Rafael, maybe?) by the lovely pilgrimage church, but it's not right by the pedestrian center of Vicenza. We had several wonderful meals in Vicenza, just by asking the hotel concierge for suggestions. We took a great private guide for a day in Vicenza. She was superb. Again, the hotel arranged it before...actually, C. Marzio had pretty nice service now that I think of it! We've travelled extensively in Italy over the years. This time I travelled with my late twenties daughter...we loved Vicenza. By the way, Bellagio, even in early June, is almost deserted. We stayed at the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni, although open, it was almost empty. We were the only people in the dining room....however, had an exceptional meal.

Have a great time!

Oh yes, you can walk from Hotel Campo Marzio to everything... including v. Rotunda and the lovely Valmarena, which was open, had nice ladies taking minor admission fees and the count sitting in the foyer, quite charmingly interested in everything. On the property, we expressed interest in some new construction and the contractor took us through a wonderful small (4 units, maybe)apartment group that was being built for the estate...actually, he was speaking Italian and we don't, so I think that was the gist of the "what is this?" answer....