Padova

On Monday, we took a day's excursion from Quarto d'Altino to nearby Padua. We wanted to know what all those Shakespearean characters, so often coming and going from this place, are always talking about. And we wanted to see Giotto's masterpiece: the Arena Chapel, painted around 1304. The newly dimensional style of painting that characterized the Renaissance started here.

The plain exterior gives no hint of the glories inside -- and we could not take photos. But below is a (borrowed) glimpse, and you can see more here. It was nearly overwhelming to stand and try to take it all in, especially in the mere 20 minutes allotted each group of visitors. Only 25 people are admitted at a time, and while one group is in the chapel, the next is waiting in a specially designed room that conditions the climate just so before the chapel doors are opened.

 

J enjoyed doing laps around the antiquities-studded courtyard of the museum.

Then we wandered a while through the Padua streets, thinking about this ancient university town's storied history of geniuses: Dante, Petrarch, Galileo, Copernicus, and Donatello, to name the few listed in our guidebook.

We later found our way to the Prato Della Valle at the south end of town, a city park peopled with 18th-century statues of famous Paduans, built over the site of a Roman theater. In the massive Basilica di Sant'Antonio, we sat listening to the monks singing vespers...

... then  hit the gelato stand on the lawn outside!