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Other entries in Padua

A quick visit to Padova (or Padua, if you prefer)

Teri got up and was out of the room by 5:20. I made it down by about 9:00. While I was checking my email for one last time at the hotel, I overheard Bruce, the desk clerk, saying that the taxi drivers were on strike. My heart sunk! I sure hope Teri had been able to get to the airport.

I asked him if he knew anything about it, and he said that they arrange transportation with private drivers, so I have hope that Teri got to the plane on time. I am still waiting to hear how the trip home went.

I took a train to Padua, which got me there in the heat of the day. I was so proud of myself for figuring out the bus route, buying the ticket and getting myself to the youth hostel. I had planned to drop off my luggage and hit a major site before a late lunch. Well, the youth hostel has a different schedule on weekends - go figure. No one is available to accept baggage during the afternoon. I had several choices:

• Make my way back to the train station and see if I could leave the luggage there (no guarantee)
• Play tourist with my pack on my back (sore back and heat prostration almost guaranteed)
• Sit on the step and wait.

I picked the third option. It was a quiet neighborhood, so I just sort of sat there. There wasn't enough space for me to curl up and take a nap, like I did at Cathy's house. But, just not moving Murderously Heavy Luggage was a rest.

After I got in at 4:00, I went directly to the Scrovegni Chapel and saw the marvellous Giotto frescos. www.cappelladegliscrovegni.it They were absoulutely fantastic! I remember Sister Jeanne going on about them in art history, but her slides didn't do them justice.

They had recently restored them and installed an airlock so that outside contaminants wouldn't affect the 700 year old paintings. We sat in a small room and watched a video for 15 minutes while the air was cleansed. Then, the other group left the chapel though a separate sealed door and we went in. We had exactly 15 minutes to take it all in. It was fantastic.

In the paragraph about going to the chapel, I had planned to say that I went "straight" to the chapel. However, this is a medieval town, and the street meander. Sometimes they are almost as wide as my driveway. Othertimes, they are more like sidewalks. There are lots of pedestrian only areas, and beautiful arcades, but not as grand as the ones in Turin.

So, I after the Scrovegni Chapel, I ambled over to the Basilica of St. Anthony. It was quite an impressive place. Watching the people praying at the tomb was moving. Some people were leaving candles to be burnt at the tomb, and it made me want to laugh that the candles were so warm from being in the sun that they were kind of drooping over peoples' hands almost as if they were made of taffy.

They had a chapel full of relics, too. Cloths that covered his casket, his robe, the rock that he used for a pillow, and (shudder) his tongue and vocal chords. They were supposedly perfectly preserved inspite of the fact that his body had crumbled away to dust. They were in glass reliquaries, but I couldn't make out what I was looking at. Just as well, I guess.

I stopped for a pizza and salad for dinner, but I was so warm that I didn't eat much of either. I had the pizza wrapped to take with me for later.

On the way back to the hostel, I paused to watch the merchants that had been set up for the market in Prato del Valle, an unusual city center - not a square, but an oval with a small river running around a central island. What a production! It was amazing to watch how they were folding up the roofs and tarps that they ran their businesses from. This market had been mostly clothing and hosewares, from what I could tell. I had come across a couple in other squares that sold fruits, vegetables and all the other sorts of edibles one would expect.

I managed to get my laundry all done, which is a Good Thing. One of my roommates was from Brazil, and she told me that she didn't speak English - and then went on to prove it. I stayed by the laundry room and waited for the dryer to finish. After all the heat of the day, I wasn't into playing "Guess what I'm saying" for the whole evening. Half an hour was enough.

Sunday, on to Ravenna!