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Published: September 7th 2017
Geo: 44.4944, 11.3492
Home of Taming of the Shrew and yet not a shrew in sight! Didn't see a mention of this or of Shakespeare here, unlike in Verona where we saw lots of references to Romeo and Giulietta...
Writing this on Sunday morning as when I returned to the apt last night was too tired to do it...
Saturday, the 24th of September.
Up bright and early as I am off to Padova (Padua) for a tour with some other students and a teacher from the school today. Yesterday afternoon I found the bus stop I am supposed to take to the train station so I knew where to meet it this morning.
The handyman came at about 7:40 am to fix the metal shutter that broke again, might have been user error as you aren't supposed to pull them all the way up... Didn't know that so pulled it all the way up, he and the other guy both said it's very old, so I do think there was more to it than just me... Anyway, had a lesson on how far to pull it up and should be good to go, it worked last night and this morning...
Waited for the shutter guy
to finish before I left so I could lock up, he was done by 8:10. Walked to the bus stop (Porta San Felice) and caught the #32 to the Centrale Stazione, only took a few minutes so I was there in plenty of time to meet the teacher at 9 am. She came but the other 2 were not there and we were getting a bit worried that they may miss the train, the teacher had the tickets and the next train wouldn't be leaving for another hour.... J____ showed up but no A____ they were supposed to meet and get on the bus together to come to the station but A____ was late so J____ came on her own ... The three of us got on the train and the teacher was talking to A____ on the phone as the train was just about to leave encouraging her to run and just get on the train, she did, then the teacher searched the cars to find her after we got moving! All was well, she was found, and we all got to Padova together. One of the BIG differences between the "old" students and the younger ones is the
old ones like to get places in plenty of time whereas the younger ones like to sleep till the last minute and make a mad dash... ;-) makes for an interesting time!
Since we were taking the regional train it was much slower than the frecciargente that I took to get to Bologna and elsewhere. It took an hour and a half to get to Padova, the tickets cost 10,50 each way FYI, if anyone wants to know and go.... Arrived at almost 11 and walked to the city center, about a 10-15 minute walk, we saw a famous caffe where the revolutionary students in the 1800's met and it stayed open 24 hours a day for a week, I think it was when they were trying to throw off the Austrian rule. The teacher was explaining everything in Italian so I missed a lot! She was nice enough to also speak in English so we could understand what she was saying.... But the point is to learn Italian...
It is a very nice city, the third most important city in the Veneto region, 1st is Venice, 2nd Bologna, 3rd Padova, it has a prestigious and important University here like in Bologna.
Saw a few open air markets, and the ancient building that housed their courts or tribunals. The ceiling was built like the hull of a ship and Donatello's model of a horse is in here and it is HUGE, he definitely had grand plans as the one that actually was made out of bronze is MUCH smaller, it's located right outside their major church, the Basilica of St. Anthony.
Giotto originally painted the inside of this building (mentioned above), Palazzo Della Ragione, but unfortunately, a fire destroyed them, but what is in there now is beautiful, photos to follow.
We then walked over to the Basilica of St. Anthony, which is a huge attraction here, 6 million visitors come every year. The tomb of Anthony is located here, and long lines of pilgrims come and touch his tomb and pray to him, leave photos of loved ones they want to be healed, etc... It was sad to see people praying to him instead of the one true God that can actually hear and answer prayers. There was another chapel in this church where a bunch of pilgrims, wearing scarves of their tour I believe as they were all the same, were
praying to another dead man, sad.
We were all pretty hungry so stopped at a cafe not far away, I had the Piatti del Giorno which was spaghetti carbonara and a Caprese salad with water for 9,50 it was ok but discovered it was a frozen meal heated in the microwave!!! Disappointing.... This week will try to get to a good restaurant that was recommended by the school staff.
Off now to a beautiful circular garden with 4 bridges over a canal, around which are 80 statues and on two of the bridges four obelisks as they ran out of money for more statues.
As a side note, I felt sorry for our teacher, as she was trying to keep track of us and not lose 3 foreigners here, I told here we had an expression in the US, that it was like "herding chickens", she liked that!
J____ and I had bought tickets to see the famous Scrovegni Chapel since we are here, on the way there we stopped to see the university where there was a protester "chained" in a chair, saw two police vans pull up also, not sure if they were there in regards to him or not. Took
some photos of the university courtyard, in the loggia around it are the school "photos" of the time. Which were the family crests painted or sculpted and put on the ceiling or walls lining the loggias, photos below. We left A____ there to look around as she's looking for a university in Italy, though this area is basically the "show" area now and the rest of it is elsewhere and more utilitarian looking no doubt. J___ and I found the Scrovegni Chapel, the teacher caught up with us to make sure we did and we had a great tour of it. There is a museum, art gallery, multimedia presentation beforehand to explain it a bit. You have to get your tickets in advance (13 euros plus 2 for mandatory reservation fee) and have a specific time to go in, you then go into a room and watch a 15 minute video while everyone gets dehumidified or something, another group leaves by a different door, then your group goes in for 15 minutes, it's a well-oiled machine. 15 minutes in there is not long enough but it was so cool to see in person something that I've seen so many photos
of. Here is a link if anyone is interested in seeing the groundbreaking work of Giotto that influenced the Renaissance.
http://www.cappelladegliscrovegni.it/index.php/en/
Before we were in the chapel, I was under the impression we couldn't take photos, so wasn't planning on taking any. I then see lots of people taking pictures, not being sneaky in the slightest right in front of the "guards" or guides, that don't guide... Anyway, I have photos below which were nice to be able to take.
J___ really wanted one of the famous Pedrucchi from the Pedrucchi Caffe, so we walked back to get one "to go" as I wanted to get on the train and get back before it was too late. It does make me nervous to walk around too much after it gets dark.... And if we missed the 5:50 we'd have to wait another hour, etc... So anyway we really were walking fast and I must say that that 81-year-old was a major trooper and could lead the way as far as walking fast! I really hope I'm as spry as she is when I'm that age!!
We made it with a couple of minutes to spare and discovered that the teacher told us the
time the train left was incorrect, that was ok as we actually now had some time to spare, instead of 10 till it left at 10 after. So we sat for a few minutes, got on the right train, and were able to be back to Bologna by 7:45. J___ took the #32 back to her area and I waited for the #33 back to mine. I was a bit nervous as I hadn't taken this one before and not so familiar with the area, I just stayed near the bus driver and asked him for that stop, a young gal was also unfamiliar with the area and was asking also. We got off together, I actually knew which street we needed so we walked there together and then for a little bit farther, we said ciao after a bit and went our separate ways. It was nice to have her to walk with though. All was fine, stopped across the street at the grocery store for a couple of items then got into the apt at about 8:30 got in some good steps!
Saw a couple of cut wires on my counter and checked, the lights and shelves now fixed!!
Hooray, someone came while I was gone and took care of it!
Relaxed for a while and went to bed!
Steps: 18,169
Miles: 7.86
Floors: 11
A Domani!
Wendy
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Karen Hull
non-member comment
Beautiful!