Believe it or not, the city of Cleveland has a sister city. And not just any city in the world--an Italian city! Vicenza is located in the northeast region of Veneto and tends to be overshadowed by its better known neighbors Padova and Venezia to the east, and Verona to the west.

Although most Americans have never heard of Vicenza, any respectable architecture buff can tell you that American democratic iconography is infused with an architectural renaissance born in Vicenza thanks to the work of Andrea Palladio. Palladio's neoclassical revival of the dome, inspired by the more famous Pantheon in Rome impressed one of America's Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, so much that he once called Palladio his "Bible". Jefferson even incorporated Palladian techniques for Monticello, the Capital and the Rotunda at the University of Virginia. 

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Source: http://www.lagazzettaitaliana.com/