Day in Padova - 1.sep

We were instructed to take a train to Padova - 40 minutes and voila. Buying the ticket was a bit of a hassle as one machine did not like cash and the other could not print the ticket. Eventually got a ticket bought to a train leaving in 20 minutes - 5.80 EUR for 2 people :) Unbelievably cheap. Yesterday when trying the machine out the cost for 2 would have been 28 EUR, must have been some direct fancy train I guess. Anyways, got to Padova quite quick despite the cheap train. 20 minute walk across the town and 30 minutes later we were already checked in at our hotel nicely.

Rehearsal dinner is at 8pm, we need to be ready in the lobby at 7:45 - this leaves us the whole day to look around town. Started off at the nearby Basilica del Santo which was built on the 13th century to safeguard the mortal remains of St.Anthony. Guide book also knows that the basilica blends Romanesque, Gothic, Islamic and Byzantine elements with elegant arched loggias, minarets and domes, and is a treasure trove of art works by Sansovino, Tiepolo and Titian (this Titian made it everywhere huh?). Again the interior was magnificent, lots of colors, lots of details, lots of materials mixed together and lots of little boxed areas for all sorts of important people. Too bad I don't know a whole lot about Catholic religion to dig deeper into the meaning of all the little rooms and seats in the holy house, but oh well, it was just pretty and fancy all over. People have done strangest things in the name of religion and built strangest buildings to represent all that they meant - history is beautiful I'd say.

The rest of the day we just wondered around aimlessly and kept our eyes open for anything we might want to have a closer look at. Padova is so much different than what we saw in Venice. Buildings here have roofed areas over sidewalks which form those cute arches you can walk through underneath (don't know how to explain those, just look from the photos what I mean). Stopped here and there to read small information sheets by buildings, had a sandwich somewhere, chilled at a Prato della Valle and stopped to have freshly squeezed orange juice at an open air cafe place. It is so nice not to know and not to have to care what day or time it is - life is beautiful.

In the evening met Ryan, Elena and rest of the crowd by the hotel and walked over to the restaurant all together. Haven't seen Ryan for ages and Elena ever :) Ryan is fluent in Italian by now and speaks also German as he has lived in Germany for years by now. Ryan's family is all here, grandparents, aunt and uncle, childhood friend. Elena's parents, brother with his family and aunt with her family joined us at the dinner as well. Dinner was nice, getting to know each other, speaking with their parents and enjoying the evening.

The plan was to go out after dinner :) Walked to the center of the town and what do you know, bells square was packed with people, just packed. Whole square was full of tables and seemed like a whole town was at this one square :) Strangest thing, apparently this is quite normal in Italy. But on a random Wednesday night at 11pm? Odd :) Tried out northern Italian common drink Spritz, took whole lot of pictures and heard many stories of Ryan and Elena. It was a wonderful evening. Walking home around 1am it was still quite warm outside, just like at home this summer.