Day Trips from Venice - Venice and the Veneto - page 452

LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
'BIRDS' OF THE BANCO POPOLARE
Just off Corso Palladio, you'll find the headquarters of the Banca Popolare di Vicenza (the People's Bank of Vi-
cenza), housed rather ironically in Palladio's Palazzo Thiene MAP GOOGLE MAP ( 0444 33 99 89;
www.palazzothiene.it; Contrà San Gaetano Thiene ; 9am-5pm Wed, Thu & Fri Jan-Jun & Sep-Dec) F ,
which he fashioned for the aristocratic Thiene family in 1556. The bank purchased the palace in 1872 soon after
its founding and has, since then, been filling it with a variety of treasures.
Most interesting of these is the unique collection of oselle (silver and gold coins minted by the Doge each year
and presented as a Christmas gift to all the noble families of the Great Council of Venice). Originally, the gift was
five mallards per family, but given the growing number of nobles and the declining number of mallards, in 1521
the Council decreed that the doge should mint a silver coin instead, hence the name, oselle, which is Venetian for
bird.
The bank owns the most complete collection in the world - 275, to be precise - and you can now book to see
them, along with the bank's frescoed salons, fine artworks and sculpture.