Padova

Today's exploration would take us to the University town of Padua (Padova in Italian). It is Italy's second oldest university after Bologna and one that escaped the church's control at least initially. It was so easy to get here from Venice for a day trip at a mere 15 minutes by fast train. Don't do what we did. We found an excellent blog post to see Padova in a day and thought our job was done. Read the post carefully and book tickets to see Giotto's frescoes in Scrovegni Chapel, Padova's other claim to fame. Reportedly the frescoes that sparked the Italian Renaissance. We left it too late!

We won't reinvent the wheel. The above mentioned post truly is helpful. It not only lists the top 13 attractions, it also has descriptions, directions, instructions and timed the itinerary in a such a way that you are at the right place at the right time eg when the English tours are on at a certain attraction, when the markets are on etc

Do enjoy our photos which captured our experiences of the day. Our highlight was the Baptistery. It was unexpectedly wow. And the audio guide was well done to better appreciate the frescoes. It truly made the 1930s and 40s architecture and artwork at the university (Palazzo Bo) look clumsy bordering on ugly.

Prato della Valle and its 78 statues

Comfortable and quick train ride!

Galileo Galilei who spent 18 years in Padova

Basilica of St Anthony, initially built in the 1200s. Donatello spent 10 years in Padua...

...and there was an equestrian statue by him right outside the Basilica. The kids best impression of the covered statue

Padova University Botanical Garden. We were too cheap to pay for entry as it was winter

Time for a short break. So many different filling options

Break #2

Piazza delle Erbe and the impressive Palazzo della Ragione

Ground floor of the Palazzo della Ragione was full of food stalls - butchers, delis, cheese shops

Also where we found our lunch of fresh pasta. We learnt another new type today. Bigoli or fat spaghetti

The markets have been here for 800 years. We bought our usual clementines

The beautiful terrace of the second floor of the Palazzo della Ragione

The inside was essentially a gigantic medieval town hall with beautiful 14th century frescoes

A Foucault pendulum. Google it. Too hard to explain in one sentence

The kids rang Opa just to show him the horse

Astronomical clock. Note 24 hours and only 11 zodiac signs. Libra is missing in case you were wondering

Ponte Molina. One of a few surviving Roman bridge from 30-40AD

Ancient Jewish Ghetto

The Baptistery. So plain on the outside

Phenomenal inside

So much detail

Four apostles. One in each corner with their respective symbol beneath them

The bible told in pictures. From Genesis to Revelations. This wall depicted Jesus' works.

Palazzo Bo, the seat of the University of Padova

The crests (on walls and ceilings) are family crests! Families put it there to indicate that a member was educated at the institution

The modern part of the palazzo. The kids favourite - pizzaman...

These are the oldest family crests

And one belonging to the family of Galileo Galilei

His teaching podium

A model of the anatomy theatre. It was small!! Each tier was only 40cm deep from front to back so you couldn't really move

If you were a dead body, that would be your view looking up

One of the oldest chambers in the Palazzo. Fallopio (who named the Fallopian tube) and Eustachi (Eustachian tube) taught here

Original features left intact

The ugly 20th century additions