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.

Reduced and free tickets cannot be bought online. The operator says so plainly: online sales carry the full ticket only, and every concession has to be collected at a physical ticket office. Anyone entitled to a reduction who books ahead pays full price for the privilege.

Closed Mondays — though the museum publishes a long list of Monday exceptions across the year, so the rule has more holes than most and the calendar is worth checking rather than assuming either way.

And it is five floors. Visitors budgeting an hour for "a Palladian palace" meet a full civic picture gallery, with the basement given over to temporary exhibitions on top of the permanent hang.

€8.00 full, €6.00 reduced, €2.00 for schools, on a single ticket valid for one day from the date of purchase.

Reduced and free tickets are only available at physical ticket offices. The online channel sells the full ticket; if you are entitled to a concession, buy at the desk — at Corso Palladio 212 or Piazza dei Signori 18.

Entry is always free for people with disabilities and their companion across the whole Vicenza civic circuit, though the tickets still have to be collected at one of those two offices before the visit.

Cards cover several sites at once. The circuit takes in Palazzo Chiericati, the Museo Naturalistico Archeologico, the Museo del Risorgimento e della Resistenza at villa Guiccioli and the Gallerie di Palazzo Thiene, with the Teatro Olimpico and Basilica Palladiana alongside.

Groups and school groups must book, on 0444 964380 — Monday to Friday 09:00–13:00 and 14:00–18:00 — or at booking@comune.vicenza.it.

Hours

Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00–18:00. Last admission 30 minutes before closing. Closed Mondays, 25 December and 1 January — but the museum publishes a long list of extraordinary openings, several of them Mondays, so check the calendar.

Tickets

€8.00 full, €6.00 reduced, €2.00 schools, valid one day. Concessions and free entry only at the ticket desks, at Corso Palladio 212 or Piazza dei Signori 18.

Booking

Only groups and school groups need to book: 0444 964380, Monday to Friday 09:00–13:00 and 14:00–18:00, or booking@comune.vicenza.it.

How long

Two hours. Five floors, four of them served by lifts, with the basement given to temporary exhibitions.

This is the most precisely documented accessible building in the Veneto rollout. The museum publishes a ramp with an 8% slope, and states that of its five floors, four are reached by two lifts — giving both cars' measurements: door 89 cm with an interior of 110 × 145 cm, and door 88 cm with an interior of 120 × 144 cm.

Both lifts have Braille button panels and an audible signal at each floor. Those numbers let you check your own chair against the doors before leaving home, which is the whole point of publishing them.

Entry is always free for a visitor with a disability and their companion across the civic circuit — collected at Corso Palladio 212 or Piazza dei Signori 18.

Two support programmes run across the circuit and are unusual anywhere. Mini-guides in Augmentative and Alternative Communication are available in all seven civic museums, and 31 three-dimensional reproductions of works with Braille captions, made to be touched, are installed across five locations. Both came out of the ULSS 8 Berica "Social and Inclusive Tourism" project with the Comune di Vicenza.

The city also publishes a parking map for disabled drivers. Assistance animals are admitted, as are small pets held or in a carrier.

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.