A Tale of Two Cities

I left Bergamo yesterday and wound up in Padua. I arrive late in the afternoon with the intention of locating the hostel (hoping I'd be able to get a room as I had not booked in advance) and maybe taking in at least one site knowing the museums would be closed on Monday. The TI at the train station was closed and the ubiquitous newstands didn't have the cheapo maps so I showed the bus ticket seller the hostel guide open to the Padua hostel. He said "Si, Si" and sold me a ticket and told me a bus number. Right bus, wrong driver. I showed the drive the same thing with the hostel book and he said gave me the same "Si, Si". Along about the third stop along the way, his girlfriend, or possible one of may female admirers, stepped onto the bus and darn near sat on his lap. They had quite the conversation going. Eventually after having pulled away from a stop and gone quite a few twisting blocks, he gave kind of a start and looked up at me in his rear view mirror. He stopped at the next stop (no one had signaled) and indicated I should get out at this stop. We both knew he had screwed up and we both knew that we knew. I stepped off without uttering any of the epithets I was thinking. He starred ahead. I wandered around with the map from the hostel book but couldn't find any of the street names or landmarks. Eventually, I found a dog walker in a fur coat (go figure) who helped me out a bit. It became a kind of relay team of friendly Italians. I'd get so far on one person's directions and then find someone else who'd get me going the right way again until I was confused and would ask again. I'm glad the parking is so bad here because the final leg of my journey was directed by the municipal police giving out parking tickets at a church parking lot.

So that was my arrival here. My visit has been far more pleasant. I started with a tour of St. Anthony's Basillica. I had a private showing of the multimedia presentation of his life. It includes timed lights on still photos, paintings and backlit transparencies, slide presentations and even walls that fly in and out. I learned a bit, too.

Since most of the museums are closed on Mondays, that limited my options of touristy things to do so I went to lunch early. . .in Venice. I'm getting as much out of my rail pass as I can and it's only 45 minutes away. In Venice, I didn't even bother with the TI because I knew everything would be closed so I just picked up on the of the cheap maps and walked. The Grand Canal is right at the steps of the train station so I just walked along it for a while, then crossed over one of the smaller bridges and traipsed through the narrow streets, crossing lesser canals here and there all the while looking for a likely place to have lunch. Eventually, I wound back at the Grand Canal and found a kind of pricey place but what are you gonna do. It's The Grand Canal fer cryin' out loud. So I had my pricey lunch and then headed back to the train station. I thought about doing a Gondola ride but I admit that would really be kind of sad to do that alone, don't ya think. Besides, busted my budget on the lunch.

Back to Padua and just in time to catch on of the few things available on a Monday-a tour of the old Padua University. The building know as the BO because that's Italian for ox and the building used to have and ox on it when it was a 4 star hotel back in the 1200s. I sat in the exact lecture hall that Galileo lectured in and looked up through the very first anatomy lecture hall every built. Well, I thought it was cool.

I'm not sure what the rest of the day will hold but I was passing the internet cafe and here I am, updating. . . so considered yourselves updated. :-)