Padova: Link in a Golden Chain

However lovely Florence and Tuscany were, we could not stay there forever. We had hotel reservations back up north, and so we said goodbye to the warmth of Tuscany and boarded a train to take us to Veneto. Breaking our journey in Bologna allowed us to spend a considerably smaller amount of money on our tickets. Several people we crossed paths with planned on stopping in Bologna for the next leg of their own trips from Florence, and both of us were a little bewildered by their decision to do so. What attractions does Bologna have? Had we made a mistake in leaving it off our own itinerary?

The view from our hotel balcony.

Regardless, it was too late to change it now, and our time in Bologna was spent eating the last of our food from the supermarket in Sienna: apples and peanut butter, a perfect snack. Back on the train, I fell asleep. After embarking in Padua, we successfully navigated the public transportation system and found our way to our hotel, which was remarkably literally a stone's throw away from St Anthony's Cathedral. We spent our first hour in Padua marveling at the differences between a hotel and a hostel. Our accommodation in Florence had been perfectly adequate, but this hotel provided a free map, we had our own room, with our own bathroom, and a balcony which looked out over the Cathedral. Sometimes it pays to pay.

Because of it's proximity, our first stop in exploring the city of Padua was the Cathedral, a famous pilgrimage destination for people petitioning Anthony, the patron saint of an endless list of professions, hobbies, and events. Stepping into the cathedral, my breath caught in my throat. Every inch of the interior was carved or painted or adorned in someway. It was overwhelming. Surrounding the main nave of the church were a number of smaller chapels, some with paintings and altars, some with statues, one with relics, and one, the largest of them all, the tomb of Anthony himself, with a file of people walking by. As we passed, a group of preschool-age children were being ushered out by their ragged looking teachers, a job I did not envy them.

We stayed inside for long minutes, trying to see everything, to understand the amount of work that went into such a building, to appreciate the devotion that motivated the innumerable carpenters, sculptors, painters, and other artists to build such a resting place for one holy man. Finally, we vowed to return, and made our way back out onto the square and towards Piazza Bar, the largest Roman piazza in Italy.


It too was lovely, in a very different way. The borders of the square were buildings with the ubiquitous arches of Padua, all graceful, all providing a covered walkway around nearly the entirety of the square. The center of the square was an artificial island, surrounded by a moat and reached by one of several bridges. On either side of the moat were statues of presumably famous Italians, although the only name we recognized was Galileo.
     Unlike any of the other cities we had visited or were planning to visit, Padua doesn't really have any blockbuster sites. The charm of Padova is it's atmosphere, the city itself. We spent the rest of the day wandering around the city, not really having a destination in mind, but wanting to get a feel for this city. If Sienna was like a museum, walking through Padova was like walking onto a very large movie or theater set. The columns and arches were impossibly real, improbably recognizable from Kiss Me Kate.

The only other specific sites we saw were more churches: a beautiful little chapel in the middle of construction, and another cathedral which although it didn't have the splendor of St. Anthony's, I think I ended up liking better for it's simplicity. We saw some market squares, and stopped for hot chocolate and coffee in an adorable cafe to get out of the rain where we were mistaken for Dutch girls.

For whatever reason, whether it was the rain which caught us off guard, without our umbrellas, the fact that our trip was now halfway over, or the simple action of having moved that day, I was in an unreasonably bad mood. I stuck it out as long as I could, and tried to enjoy the city, even in the rain, but when the simple plans we were making about where we were going to eat continued to be foiled by odd opening hours, I was over it, and fairly begged Abbie to go back to the hotel.

We solved our food problem by asking at the hotel for the nearest supermarket. We trudged down the street, and peered into storefronts, wondering if this was it, and nearly gave up. But then we found it, and discovered that it was called Meta! This simple fact made the finding of food even more exciting. We purchased a random selection of food, took a picture with my namesake, and returned to the hotel, ready to spend the rest of the night in our pajamas watching TV on Abbie's phone.


After that first day, our time in Padua was limited to the walk back from the train station after our trip to Verona, and the hour we spent back in Piazza Bar our last morning there, reprising our roles as statue imitators, a most amusing pastime. We certainly enjoyed ourselves, and probably entertained the people around us as well.

Though, as I said earlier, Padua doesn't have any sites on par with Florence, or Venice, or even Verona, it is quite a nice town. The arcades and arches, the pedestrian cobblestone streets, the restaurants and shops geared towards university student budgets, one of the laziest rivers I have ever seen in my entire life, the beautiful buildings tucked surprisingly down tiny alleyways, the arches which open into piazzas, they all add up to one of the most natural cities I've seen. Because most of the tourists coming into town are there for St. Anthony, it doesn't have to put on a show for the gawkers who wander the streets of other Italian cities. The students permeating the city give it a youthful atmosphere which completely belies it's considerable history.


By the time we left, with three nights left before I'd be back in Bratislava, I found I had reconciled myself with the city and wanted to stay and make amends for my earlier unreasonableness. Instead, we boarded a train for the 20 minute ride to Venice, our final destination.