Just when I was going to stop emailing/ blogging for a while (and I still will), I got agitated and decided to take myself off to Padova for the day. I’m not long home, totally exhausted. I think it was the hardest of my explorations walking-wise.
Firstly there are these Giotto Frescoes…World Heritage etc etc. You can’t buy tickets when you get there, you have to buy them the day before so I did all that and off I set early this morning. You have to be there 45 mins before your allotted time so I had to charge there from the train. I have seen them before, with Dinny in 2002, but wanted to see them again.
I spend the time on the train whenever I go anywhere working out what closes at 12, what closes at 1 and what stays open, then I have to remain very focussed to zigzag from one site to the other to fit in as much as I can. So when I got to the Giotto Chapel they offered me the prior time which I jumped at. It is of course brilliant but honestly for me once you’ve seen Ravenna everything seems dull. Nothing shimmers like those Mosaics. Still and all it was gorgeous. Then I charged off to the Duomo through the most wonderful market with fantastic produce that makes the mouth water. The Duomo was good…some little gems to see, then to the Battistry that is covered in marvellous frescoes. When I got to the Battistry which is a tiny little space the man on the door was trying to tell my something and I just didn’t get it. In the end he through his hands in the air and let me in. So I’m sitting there and all these people are arriving, then ‘Here comes the Bride’ starts up on the organ and there I am in the midst of a wedding with no-one else touristy and the exit blocked. Ahhhh so that’s what he was saying, oh shit. I looked at him and grinned and he found a way of getting me out without colliding with the bride. That’ll teach me!! But on the other hand I wouldn’t have got in unless I’d been just been dumb and I would have missed some fabulous work.
Then I had to charge to the other end of town to the Orta Bottanica. The oldest Botanical Gardens planted in 1545 by the medical faculty to study the medicinal properties of rare plants. It was gorgeous but there is also on the site a massive bio-diversity garden very similar to the Eden Project in UK. Gorgeous!! but bloody miles away. By this time I was exhausted but back I plodded to another Basilica…just in time!! Then I wanted to go to this other site next to it but had missed it. It was closed tip 2.30 and it was 1.30. This was actually fortuitous because I was dead on my feet. So I took a one hour lunch break in a nice little trattoria nearby. That was nice. Then back to the Oratorio which was well and truly worth the effort with some gorgeous frescoes by Titian and others. This was actually a bit of a highlight.
There was more to do but I’d managed to fit in the highlights so wondered back through town. Padova is a lovely, lovely town as are so many in Italy. I was struck by its connection to Venice. There are masks all over the place already in preparation for Carnivale, there are little canals reminiscent of Venice. After wandering for a bit, I decided I couldn’t stand a museum so headed back to the station to find a train back to Bologna. Home at 6.30pm…a long long day.
Then I looked to see if I’d won my fortune on the Cup…alas but I can’t tell you how close I came to putting money on ‘the barman’…great name. And that the Japanese horse dropped dead is awful, what drama! Well I got through Cup day in a very different way but certainly quite as occupied as anyone.
Quiet day tomorrow for sure, my feet are telling me so!! This is certainly where the blogs peter out a bit!!