vigevano sat on my to-visit list for quite a long time before i finally paid a visit. it appeared there on the list all because of a rumor. a rumor that said it is where the most beautiful piazza in italy located, piazza ducale. the rumor apparently was based on this one famous american starchitect, which i don't fancy at all, who said it's his favorite piazza in italy. and also in italy itself the piazza is quite famous for being beautiful.
it was actually just about 30 minutes of train ride from milan but i was always too lazy to go. until that time when i was dating a guy from vigevano and he invited me over. it was on and off and on and off and i ended up not going. and i finally went by myself, for a rather short visit, a little after that period. and. it turn out to be not interesting at all. both the piazza and the city.
i can totally get why it is beautiful. the details on each side of the piazza were amazingly beautiful. the scale felt right in proportion. the way the piazza is connected to its surrounding is comfortable. there is a staircase that is not really visible which you can climb and reach the castle and its courtyard. so technically, it is a nice piazza. but i always judge a piazza based on how people occupy the space. here it felt all dull. like there's no life to it. and it was summer time when i was there. i can't see any comfortable way of how people could occupy the space instead of just sitting on the seats provided by the restaurants. apart from that there were just some bicycle passing through every now and then and a couple of old men leaning on the fountain chatting. it's just a lifeless piazza. more people are actually occupying the courtyard of the castle to hang around, including myself. so, conclusion is, what's the point of being beautiful if you're just lifeless. it's like a pretty girl but utterly idiotic. my vote for the best piazza would still goes to piazza del campo in siena, it's just not physically beautiful, but you could feel how beautiful it is by being there with all other people.
