Last night in Verona and on to Padua

Dinner at the tennis club was great! Wonderful (and cheap!) food with a wonderful view over Verona as the sky turned dark. The owner of the B&B, Giovanna, drove us up to the club. We though we could walk easily back down to the city after dinner. I did a Google maps search and saw that it would be only 1 1/2 miles from the club to our B&B, so we were up for it. So after that great dinner, we walked out the front of the club only to find that it was almost pitch black, none of the very winding roads were lit, there was no room to walk along the side of the roads AND there were tons of cars driving by in both directions. We decided to take a cab instead. We walked back into the tennis club, and told our waiter that we had thought about walking into town but had now changed our minds and would he mind calling us a cab? You should have seen the SHOCKED expression on his face when we said we had been thinking about walking. Crazy Americans, no doubt.

Anyway, we absolutely loved Verona and Giovanna and will highly recommend Residenza Carducci in the Veronetta section of Verona to anyone who is traveling here. Huge suite, kitchen, large bath, free WIFI, and a washing machine for her guests to use whenever they want. And the breakfasts are the best we've had so far.

Here we are with Giovanna.

And here's another pretty photo from Verona.

　

We left Verona the next morning and caught the train to Padua (Padova, to the locals). When we arrived we were fortunate to get reservations to see the Scrovegni Chapel, the main attraction in this charming mid-sized city. The Chapel is decorated with frescoes by Giotto, and groups are limited to 15 minute viewing times.

We wandered around Padua viewing some amazing buildings

including the Basilica of Sant'Antonio. The most striking this about this visit was a HUGE construction crane to the right of the main altar, stretching way up to a high stained glass window. Because this church is so dark anyway, this had the effect of turning the crane into some huge alien spider monster.

This basilica is also famous for the twin nuclear reactors that can be best seen from the cloister.

　

Not really.

Then on to Venice and the Lido, which will be the subject of the next posting.