Padua, Veneto, Italy, Sunday, September 9, 2012

Hotel Al Fagiano

Our mile walk to the train station goes by fast. We board our train for Padova and it is packed. We walk through several cars but they are all full so we back up one car because it was a lot cooler with A/C going then the rest of them. This train ends in Venice so I thought it might be crowded and unfortunately I was right. Halfway to Padova, a lady gets off so Carol grabs a seat. We reach Padova and get our bearings. First to the tourist information office where I pick up our Padova cards we had booked on line. We made reservations for a chapel and you had to book the card at the same time. We get a nice map and I get directions for the tram that stops near our hotel. Next, we go to buy our train tickets to Ravenna in two days. We have been buying the tickets ahead of time and it really cuts down on the stress and timing when we leave towns. The machine is not showing the train I have written down, it shows bus connections from Ferrara. We stand in line at the ticket office and I show the lady what trains I want and no problem. I ask her if it is a bus from Ferrara or train and she says no bus it is train. I guess we are set.

Funky Room Art

We find our hotel and our luck is holding as our room is ready. It is very nice with some strange artwork. The owner is an artist of sorts so there is artwork throughout the halls and in the rooms. We head on out to do some sightseeing and maybe have lunch.
First stop we take the tram to the Porta Romani stop and head towards the Pinocoteca, an art museum that is part of the civic museums and the Padova card. We follow signs which stop and walk around the old Roman Arena and park ending up at another civic museum. She says it is across the street by the Scrovegni Chapel, so we walk through the park past the chapel out the other side and no museum. Looking at a map it should be right around the corner. No museum but a sign pointing right so we go that way. We end up where we started across the street from where the lady said to cross the street. We go back a little and there it is, a small gated entrance which leads to the museum. That was a fun half hour!

Maddelena Penitente by Canova

The museum itself is nice but there are no English descriptions so it is hard to understand the meaning of many of the paintings. We recognize some famous artist names like Titian, Tintoretto, and Tiepolo, and that is just the T’s. We see some sculptures by Canova and than go into a room that has a Giotto wooden Crucifix. This used to hang in the Scrovegni Chapel and an adjacent piece, God as Jesus, was there also. They are here because of preservation concerns since they were painted on wood. While admiring them, I hear someone ask the attendant if she speaks English. She does not and he wants to know if these are copies or the originals. She is telling him in Italian but he does not understand, and since I brought information on this, I ask if he understands english well and explain it to him. The attendant thanks me and this leads to a three way conversation with the gentleman and his wife in Italian, English, and some French. Very interesting, the attendant asks me if I am from Italy and I explain in Italian that my grandparents came from Italy in the Sicily and Calabria area. The other lady says that her relatives were from Sicily. The attendant says we could be cousins. It was great. The man and his wife have to hurry off as they have a reservation to see Scrovegni chapel but we exchange e mails quickly.

French Friends Bernd and Rose

We see the rest of the museum and also a video on the Scrovegni chapel and it’s history, which we will see tomorrow. When we finish we use the restrooms and then enter a courtyard to exit. Our friends from the cross room are sitting there having a drink. We talk for quite a while with Bernd and Rose from France. He is retired but she still works and they are both enjoying life as we are by traveling and seeing historical and cultural sights. Bernd has been around in his work as an engineer, and is originally from Germany. He met Rose at the retirement benefits office where she works. They were super nice people and we got along great talking for about an hour. We hope our paths will cross again in our travels.

Palazzo

Carol and I walk across town a bit to see a few more things. It is Sunday and we cannot believe how quiet it is here and how most places including restaurants and pizzerias are closed. We visit Palazzo Della Ragione, which has a huge hall from the 13th century. It is decorated with 333 frescoes and that is really all you get to see so we are not here very long. Next a Risorgimento museum which is not as food as the one in Milan but does contain some interesting pieces from Italian history and footage from Padova during Mussolinis visits here and bombings in WWII.

Front of St. Anthony at Night

We walk around three pretty quiet piazzas and decide to look at a restaurant possibility for dinner. This leads us to Prato Della Valle, a square where there is a fruit market, lots of cool statues, and some inline skate racing going on. We watch a race and start to walk to look for the restaurant without any luck so we walk around towards another one. It looks pretty good and is near St. Anthony’s but does not open until later. We head to the room and discover we are right around the block from the Basilica of St. Anthony. Good to know as we are visiting it tomorrow.
We relax a little and head for dinner which is good but the service was quite aloof. After dinner, we have gelato and take the short walk back to our room. It has been quite a day and we are tired so Good Night.
CNC

Expenses.
12.90E-2 train tickets to Padova
7E-2 slices pizza at Brek Focacceria
22.40E- 2 dinners, wine, service at Casa Del Pellegrino Ristorante
4E- 2 gelatos

Miles Walked – 7 Miles