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Heading out from Piazza Vecchia is Via Colleoni that is a memorial to Bartolomeo Colleoni. It is a street that brings the upper city to the ledge to overlook the lower city. The street is the sweetest in the city and is lined with sweet and chocolate and pastry shops. The residence of Bartolomeo is on this street at Luogo Pio Colleoni and it was also the office of the charity he set up to help poor women have dowries so that they could marry. This was a charitable act given that Venetian rule saying no women could marry without one practically condemned many lower class women to spinsterhood. There are only two rooms of the original building left; the first has the original statues by Amadeo that were once in front of the Cappella and the other, which was a meeting room for the charity, has some frescoes of the man himself. The charity today offers help to widows so the charitable work continues. There is a small museum of the arms of the family; these were found when Bartolomeo's tomb was opened and the story goes that the third testicle has to be rubbed to bring good luck. At the end of Via COlleoni in Piazza Mascheroni is the Cittadella or military stronghold that was built by Visconti. What is left of the structure has been turned into two museums of archaeology and natural history and a small theatre. |