20100123 – Two Days in Padua

Jeremy and I arrived in Padua on Friday and dropped our luggage off at our hostel. The hostel is setup like a college dorm, though it has many more rules. For example, they have a lockout from 9:30 am until 4:30 pm. This means that we are not allowed inside the hostel at all during that time period. I suppose that at the start of my trip this would not have been a problem. However, Padua is not a big city and I am starting to get tired of walking around all day. The 4:30 rule is really starting to annoy me.


With that said, let’s talk some about Padua, which is really a beautiful city. Padua is a university city known mainly for its university (one of the oldest in Europe) and for it’s churches. The Chiesa di St. Antonio is famous and very beautiful.


The church has a number of large and gorgeous domes inside. It also houses the chin and tongue of Saint Anthony. I do not have a picture of these wonderful relics, but I do have a picture of a statue of the Saint himself launching a child into the air.

Many of the churches that we have seen in Padua are constructed with a similarly large number of connected cylinders.


We also visited the duomo on Friday, but the main attraction, and the number one reason that we are in Padua was to visit my friend Emanuele Ornella, the world famous boardgame designer! On Friday, Emanuele setup a gaming session with Ignazio and Paolo. We met at Paolo’s house and were treated to one of the best meals that we have had in Italy. Paolo cooked Risotto with Radicchio and Bacchala. Ignazio brought a wonderful cake for desert. I cannot thank Paolo and Ignazio enough for treating us to this superb dinner.

I now that the picture is not the best (sorry). But I had a wonderful time and the picture will help me to remember it.

After dinner, we played Rhythm and Bullet and Pony Express. I do not know if either of the two games are exactly my style, but the company was brilliant. And when the company is great, even the worst of games can be an absolute blast to play.

On Saturday, I think that I can sadly report that we spent most of the day (until 4:30), wishing that it were 4:30. Our original plan had been to visit some of the nearby cities and explore some forts and castles. Sadly, the train schedule did not mesh with our schedule. Oh, and the fort was closed. Instead, we wandered around Padua. We visited a clothes market and a food market.

We also checked out a really neat museum dedicated to early cinematography.


Finally, we visited the exterior of Galileo Galilei’s home and took some pictures of an observatory tower that he may have worked in.


It is 6 pm now, and 6:30 is going to be the highlight of my day. Emanuele and Barbara have invited Jeremy and me to gaming and dinner at their house. I can’t wait. Tomorrow will also be exciting. We are going to re-visit Venice. This time with Emanuele and Barbara.

Note: THANK YOU Emanuele, Paolo, and Ignazio for the great time!

And, here is a random picture. This restaurant is in Venice, on the edge of the Piazza S. Marco. If you can, take a close look at the price of a cappuccino.