Not Just Any Bookstore...Bassano del Grappa

While roving the streets of Bassano del Grappa, this little day-tripper stumbled on an extraordinary bookstore fashioned as a library in an ancient palazzo. Art and culture have been joined in a meticulously restored edifice called Palazzo Roberti. The building dates back to the 1600’s and thanks to painstaking restoration, the palazzo presents a bookstore of the 21st century cradled in the essence of the past. Just browsing books one has the prospect to admire the high intrinsic value of the architecture, the gardens, the statues and frescoes. Flanking the staircase is a banister, a superb work of art in and of itself; the fat hand wrought wooden rail is supported by forged iron pieces resembling snakes. Today the cultural center, situated on the "piano nobile," allows us to live literature in the past during invitations and meetings with writers and artists of today. This lovely palazzo conquered her as it also did for Napoleon, who chose to reside there twice during his lifetime.