For a
holiday respite, I devoted my Friday posts through December and January to
recounting my trip to Venice in 2007. Using photos and notes from the trip, I
highlighted the urbanist issues of day-to-day life in perhaps the most famous
car-free city in the world.
However, I
reached the end of January without exhausting the stories and insights that I’d
hoped to share. With Venice being too
fascinating to leave behind with tales untold, I decided to continue with the
occasional Friday post into February and beyond. Today will be the first of those extra posts.
During my
time in Venice, I took several day trips to other Italian cities. The first outing was to Padua, only thirty
miles from Venice, but far enough to become familiar with railway travel in
Italy.
(Language
note: The outing to Padua also alerted me to another of my language faux pas,
much like “Pompa”.
The train station in Venice was called “Ferrovia”, which had a romantic
sound to my ear. I liked the feeling of “Ferrovia”
on my tongue. And then I realized that
the train station in Padua was also called “Ferrovia”. Upon cogitation, the reason became
evident. “Ferro” is the Latin root for iron and “via”
is the Latin root for road. “Ferrovia”
wasn’t the cool name of the Venetian train station; it was the generic Italian
word for train station. Oops.)
Padua was a
great daytrip, but not because of any one aspect of the city. Padua has a number of points to recommend
it. The sprawling and lively outdoor
market. The sense of history in standing
before the University of Po where Galileo worked on his theories of planetary
motion. The antiquity of the formerly
Roman city of Patavium. The Donatello
equestrian statue that is considered a milestone of the Renaissance. All of these add to the Paduan experience.
But
ultimately what mattered was that Padua was an accessible city, fully walkable
and enjoyable from the train station. It
was a walkable urban place that opened itself to the traveler in a way that too
few American cities do.
As was true
of most of my Venetian adventure, my travels eschewed rubber-tired vehicles. Vaporetto
along the Grand Canal to train to electric single-track street car into
downtown Padua. It was a fine way to
travel.
Within
Padua, the outdoor market is reportedly the second-best outdoor market in Italy,
made even more memorable by the architecture surrounding it, including the
Palazzo della Ragione, the 13th century town meeting hall. With interior dimensions of 235 feet by 85
feet and no interior columns, the Palazzo remains an impressive engineering
effort, even 700 years after its original construction.
The light inside
the Palazzo was faint for photography, but I took my favorite photo of the day in
the frescoed colonnade outside. I’ve
always been a sucker for a good colonnade
Moving away
from the downtown core I found the Duomo for Padua. It’s a handsome building, but plays second fiddle
to the real star of Padua, the Basilica of St. Anthony. The Basilica is a major pilgrimage
destination for Catholics, many of whom want to see the tongue of the well-spoken
St. Anthony that displayed in the Reliquaries.
The Reliquaries were closed when I was there, so I missed the tongue.
The horse
statue in front of the Basilica is interesting.
It may look like town statues everywhere, but when it was cast by
Donatello, it was the first life-size bronze equine casting in
over 1000 years. One more sign that the
Renaissance was truly underway.
Lastly, I
visited the cloisters of the Basilica. As
always, I can’t resist a good colonnade.
Becoming
foot-weary, I headed back to the train station (ferrovia!) and thence Venice,
thrilled by the amble around Padua and the quiet joy of a walkable town.
As always,
your questions or comments will be appreciated.
Please comment below or email me.
And thanks for reading. - Dave Alden (davealden53@comcast.net)
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