Padova, Italy

Padova and Padua are the same place. I have to wonder why we have changed the spelling of so many Italian cities - we say Venice, they say Venezia, we say Rome, they say Roma, we say Padua,they say Padova. Doesn't make sense to me. Anyway, I went there on Tuesday. It is a university town and is also where St Anthony is buried. He was only about 34 when he died. I actually could have stayed in this town for 4 days. I really liked the feel of it - got very lost - but that is my life here.

When you get off of the train, you are in the industrial part of the city. I am sure I took the long way around but did come to the old city wall. Probably most people take the bus into town, but I like to walk. These are some of the sites I passed before I got to the walled part of the city.









Saw some interesting statues




This is St Anthony's statue.



Here are some photos inside the city walls. This is St Anthony's church/burial. I didn't get to go in because it was closed so I touched the fake casket outside the church to ask for help in finding my keys I lost about 3 years ago.







This is out of order, but here is the city wall.


A good view of part of the market.







They had a large market in the center and then in these covered areas they had rows and rows of meat counters. I bought a 1/2 kilo of fresh figs; ate quite a few and left the rest for the people at the farm.




There were street artists acting out some kind of funny story and everyone sang the same song at the end. Seymour, as usual, hated the singing.



I don't know who is in these caskets, but they looked old :)




Another view of the church - pretty impressive!



This was in front of the Church where St Anthony is buried. I don't think this is his casket, but it was close enough for me to touch, so I did.




This was just a small portion of the market in the city center. I stopped and got a salad and beer at one of the local places. They had the Medina vinegar so I was pretty happy. Next to me, it looked like someone had just graduated from university; she was wearing a green leaf crown, as did a few others I saw. I like the feel of a university town.




This was an amazing park with statues all around. There were monks gathered in the park, talking or something.








As usual, I got lost in the city and asked for directions to the train station. Two people said I was a longgggg way from the train station and said I should take the bus. I said that I liked to walk, but about 30 minutes later, I looked for a bus and was thankful for the ride to the train station. My feet, and Seymour's little body thanked me!

When I got back to the farm I was exhausted. I went out to the back porch to use the wifi internet but unfortunately the wife was in the chicken pen behind me killing chickens for dinner, so I didn't feel like staying there any longer - and I was very tired and had to pack to leave this morning; that is why there was no post last night.

I just arrived at the Albergo Houston in Livorno, Italy. It is a small family run hotel and I am staying here 7 days. It was supposed to be a 15 minute walk from the train station and of course I got lost (this time I blame it partly on not understanding the directions I received) but I walked around for 2 1/2 hours. I finally sat down on a bench and Seymour whined to be picked up and immediately crawled into his sling! He's never done that before! So as tired as I was, I was pulling a heavy suitcase with a very heavy backpack on and Seymour in his sling. Luckily I did see where the hospital was located :)

More on Livorno on next post.

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