First Days in Padova

"Padua" is the English spelling, "Padova" the Italian, pronounced with the "v" as a "w."  A truly delightful, remarkabe, charming place.  And talk about roots -- apparently the earliest documented settlement here dates to about 1200 BC.  The people have been super friendly, the architecture is great, and the food glorious.  Through the good work of the University's "International Welcome Office," we found a gorgeous apartment smack-dab in the middle of the ancient city.  Just amazing.

Moira in our light and spacious bedroom.

The study.

 The apartment was for some years owned by Professoro Rosino, and Astronomer at the university.  It now belongs to his grandson (and Engineer).

The living room.  The furniture is quite quaint -- very low funny little chairs that aren't exactly comfortable.  But there's an elegance, and the views are great!

We are a very short walk to the Pallazzio della Regione, which is a large central hall with large piazzas on both of its long slides.  Piazza del Erbe is routinely filled with dozens of fruit and vegetable stalls.  Mostly, stalls offer either fruits or vegetables, not both (with certain exceptions; e.g., tomotatoes are with vegetables, and both fruit-stands and vegetable stands have certain fruits such as oranges and figs). 

A bit of parm and an eggplant and tomato salad, one of the first things we prepared in our small but functional kitchen.

Chapter I: Milano

Buon giorno!    Double click on the photos to enlarge.

We landed in Milano on 28 August (about 23 hours after Paige left us at the security gate in Victoria) and took a train from the airport to downtown.  The Milano train station is magnificent – huge, old, ornate, soaring, classical.  Grand Central Station could be tucked inside and would look nice but modest.  Moira had found a hotel (Hotel Corrobbio) on line for a good price; it was a fine pick on all dimensions (clean, quiet, comfortable, great location, nice people). 

We didn’t do all that much in Milano – wandered around, admired the duomo inside and out, did some window shopping, drank terrific coffees and wonderful orange juices.  Did a tour of Theatro la Scala’s museum, which was well worth the cost of admission, and also went to a museum with an amazing vast collection of great paintings.  Had dinner two nights running in the same place because we liked it so much the first time (and were not disappointed the second).

The duomo of Milano.  Stunning.  An easy walk from our hotel.

Don'tcha feel my thigh.

 

Spot the shiny calf above.  Kidding aside, these doors are stunning.

Saint Bartholemew is said to have been skinned alive; here he is with his skin draped above him like a cloak.  A chilling sculptural masterpiece in the duomo.

 

Reportedly the world's first shopping mall.  Certainly the classiest.  I read that the architect fell of a scaffold shortly before the work was completed so he never got to shop there.

 

Theatro la Scala, super-famous opera house.  Moira and I saw an opera here years ago, but this time we just visited as part of a tour (which also include displays of a bunch of very fine costumes).

Life imitating art.

Leaving our hotel in Milano (after 3 nights there) en route for Padova.