Padova/ Padua Italy
Like a Weekend in Framingham
By: Charles Giuliano - Dec 04, 2007
During the summer of 1975 while a graduate student of Italian Renaissance Art at Boston University, I later switched to American Art and Architecture, I won a Kress Foundation Traveling Fellowship. Back then the dollar was worth something and it was possible to stretch a modest grant into a summer in Italy with a week each in Florence, Venice, and Rome including many smaller cities.
There were no set plans or itinerary. I just wandered and found my way to hotels and restaurants. Most train stations, or near them, provided tourist information and bookings. Or, I would check my bag and set out to find a room. That was then and this is now. I am far less resilient and there are now two of us. In the week before departing for Italy, with three weeks and some seven cities to visit, including Milan for entering and leaving the country, we started to search the net for reservations. This proved to be prudent. When checking for hotels in Venice, recommended by our Italian friends Vico and Grace Consoli, we were shocked to find that, even in late October, the city was pretty much sold out for the time we had scheduled. The primary motive for traveling in Italy was to see the Venice Biennale and everything was planned around that.
Initially the itinerary included Padova, then Vicenza, before Venice, and Ferrara after, on the way to Ravenna, Rimini, San Marino, Bologna and back to Milan. A frantic call to Venice secured a booking (more on that another time) but meant a drastic overhaul of our timetable and itinerary. We could find a room if we arrived on a Monday and left on that Saturday. That meant that we would drop Vicenza and its Palladian villas and cut short the time we could spend with family coming from Berlin to meet us for the weekend. Upon arriving in Venice we managed to squeeze in an extra day to spend with Horst and Bettina Hiemer. We celebrated my birthday with a wonderful evening in Venice.
One has to be flexible when traveling and it was good that we made all those bookings for hotels. And we kept that visit to Padova to see the Scrovegni Chapel with its frescoes by Giotto. I had seen them in 1975 which was also the last time in Venice.
But booking hotels on the internet is a bit of a gamble. You get those virtual tours of typical rooms and the lobby as well as a map showing the location. Then there is the matter of price and availability. Many of the sites offer capsule reviews and ratings from former visitors. You try to take all of these factors into consideration before giving them your credit card information. And, keep your fingers crossed.
Which led us to the Hotel Sereno which was described as not exactly in the center of town but just fifteen minutes away. By bus, as it turns out. It ran on the hour on weekends, and every fifteen minutes during the week. We arrived on a Saturday and, after some inquiry, found the right bus and asked the driver where to let us off. After some consultation with his peers he said "Si, si" indicating that he knew our stop.
Rather quickly we drove through the heart of the city and on further and further becoming rapidly less medieval until we disembarked at a modern looking suburb. Entering a café we inquired about the location of the hotel. I had imagined a small, quaint rustic inn at the end of a tree lined street with perhaps grape vines surrounding the entrance. Instead we were headed down the main drag of a rather busy highway negotiating oncoming traffic on a side of the street with no sidewalk. The mood grew dark as we trudged on. Not terribly far away we found it. Actually one more stop and we would have been across the street from the new and comfortable hotel. The concierge was friendly as we registered and found a room that was at least three times the size the claustrophobic, upscale Hotel Roxy in Milan.
Having packed and traveled most of the day it was out of the question to go back into town. So we got our bearings and settled in. Looking around I commented that although we were visiting Padua it felt a lot more like a weekend in Framingham or any other American suburb. But it also was far away from tourists and a provided a chance to experience how most Italians live.
On our way to the Casa Nova Restaurant, which the concierge strongly recommended, we passed a large mall and were tempted to visit. By then it was evening and we were hungry. We found the restaurant which proved to be so delightful that we returned the following night.. It was a good sized, brightly lit, comfortable, neighborhood restaurant where groups of friends gathered for terrific meals at affordable prices. Our very charming waitress, as it turned out, was Romanian. Go figure.
A major concern was visiting the Scrovengi Chapel for which reservations are required. When we arrived the concierge made a call, it was near closing time, and she managed to get us tickets. In Milan we were unable to visit the Last Supper as it was sold out. We even tried to get a reservation for three weeks later when we returned. No luck. Not even scalper tickets.
Sunday morning we took the bus into town and the Let's Go Guide, our invaluable source of information, provided a small map indicating that the Scrovegni Chapel was a short walk from the train station. After a few inquiries, I need lots of information and reassurances; we found it and hunkered down to await our turn. In addition to the chapel we visited the museum next door which included archaeology of the area. The city was said to have been founded by a Trojan prince Antenor, in 1183 BC, and is the oldest in the Veneto region which includes Venice. The history of the city is closely linked to Venice which is a half hour away by train. There were also medieval and Renaissance paintings.
Emerging from the Scrovegni Chapel and museums it was getting late in the afternoon and time for lunch. We were off to the Basilica of Saint Anthony but the map indicated a good walk so we took a cab. From the piazza we branched off to a side street and found a café for a quick paninni and tea.
Thus fortified I studied and photographed the masterpiece by Donatello, a life sized, equestrian, bronze sculpture of the Venetian general Erasmo da Narni, which is popularly known as Gattamelata. When it was cast in 1453 it was the first such accomplishment since the Roman era and the surviving sculpture of Marcus Aurelius, a replica of which, now graces the Capitoline Hill in Rome. But Donatello's original still faces the elements and is ravaged by the stains of acid rain and the excrement of ubiquitous pigeons. It is a sad fate for a former hero.
We entered the church which is a pilgrimage destination for its remains of Saint Anthony of Padua (born in 1195 in Lisbon and died in Padua in 1231). His relics are believed to have great power to focus the prayers of the faithful with its healing grace. There are many ex votos on the walls near the altar containing his relics. We joined the crush of people surrounding the back of the altar and pressing their hands against it as they prayed.
By now late in the day and weary from so much walking about we found the bus back to the train station and from there a now familiar return to the hotel. There, after a bit of rest and washing up, we were ready for another fine meal at Casa Nova. In the hotel we accessed the internet and sent a flurry of updates to our friends. I was desperately trying to keep up with the progress of the Red Sox in the World Series. Having followed them all summer it was frustrating not to be a part of that great sports moments. The next morning it was on to Venice but we were a bit sad to be leaving Framingham.