"One of the most wonderfull experience... " a Padova Travel Page by Elweb

Send Photo to a Friend

Castels and Dungeons (and Dragons :p )

A big "BOOM!" in my face

My dear VT friends, as you know, I have announced some new pages on VT. One of them is dedicated to Padova (Italy). Padova is a city not so different from Sibiu (Romania) or Brasov (Romania). What is different is the history and the people.
I have arrived in Italy via plane at the Verona airport. I drove 40 km of clean highway, clean highway meaning an actualy smooth surface which I wasn't used to. Verona-Padova is a sight for sore eyes. There are at least 20 castels to be seen, most of them still populated. Of course today's "noblemen" ride Porche and Ferrari instead of white horses, but still ...
My first encounter with the western occident was a currency change, from LEI to EURO, which did indeed give me a big headache and a wallet-ache.

Well, folks, that is the place my brother lives in, and I must say that is a REEEEALY old town, from the times of the roman guilds, in 108 BC if I am not mistaken it was called Patavium. Imagine that! Romania at that moment didn’t even existed! There was still Dacia, the Christianity is younger that Padova, for crying out loud! And, after all that time, the inhabitants of the city managed to preserve the original walls that surrounded the town! More than 2000 years! Jeez… You have to admit that this kind of history gives birth to a lot of traditions. Some of them I did see, other not, but that is still hope.
The first thing that stroke my eyes is the gorgeous architecture, of course not the original one, but non-the-less perfect in many ways. From the first moment you enter the town, the old one, you slide down in history, that’s my imagine I’ve made for Padova.

Send Photo to a Friend

Prato della Valle,Engraving by F. Piranesi (1785)

Architecture

Briefly, try to imagine a huge web of narrow streets with a realy old look, try to imagine buildings so close to one another that the housewifes from each one actualy share the same balcony, try to imagine all that, add a law that requires the original materials in order to renovate your house and you'll get a slight picture of Padova.
Unfortunately, these materials are hard to find. But, this leads all the attention of the people living there to the inner yards. And these yards are the closest to heaven you'll ever get.
From my point of view, there are two cities. The old one, and the new one. The old one still preservs the original look of the buildings. The streets are long, tight and so tortuous that I found myself five times in the exact same spot after wondering several hours. It would seem hard to get lost, since there are so many boards with maps within the city, but I managed to do it.
One cannot be called a visitor here without going to see the St. Antonio Cathedral, a monument worthy of being remembered even after ten thousand generations. I wish I can understand more Italian, just to understand the history of this landmark, properly told by one of the many video-storytellers inside the cathedral courtyard. For only 1 euro you stay and listen and see where the story of St. Antonio began and how the monument was erected until the very day you are there. Inside the cathedral there are the remains of the Saint, one of the most loved and worshiped by the Catholic Church. The interior of the monument is breath-taking and I wish I could know more words just to be able to describe it without stealing anything from the image. I think you better go there and see it for yourself than reading the poor words I have manage to find to tell you about it. The St. Antonio Cathedral is easy to find, being one of the bigger buildings in Padova.
On your way to the Cathedral, you may find yourself crossing the larger inner-city square you ever seen. That, my friends, is Prato Della Vale: 90.000 square meters of green, former amphitheatre now a place of relaxation for the young students of the universities in Padova. That place was the 2nd that I have seen in Padova and made me feel small. Prato is an almost round place, with an island in the middle, with four access bridges and 88 statues guarding it. The statues represent important peoples of Padova’s past. Beneath the bridges pour the water coming from the old defense ditch of Patavium.

Send Photo to a Friend

Carabinieri (The Police Hq)

My Padova

The city of Padova is a realy old one. Here is where the most important characters in the history of Italy were born; architects, writers, musicians and lawyers, cofirmed by the fact that Padova is one of greatest academic centers in all of Italy. I was proud to notice that Iasi (Romania) was mentioned as Padova's romanian brother in education.
As I first walked through Padova on my own, the architectural resemblance between The Doge's Palace (Venice) and The Police Headqarters (Padova) struk my eyes. And then, the italian coffee struk my stomache. Next time I won't ask for a "short" coffee.

I haven’t seen enough of the city to say ‘yeah! That isPadova’ but what I have visited will be here, on VT for you to comment, to correct or to add. As a tourist, you can check-in at Hotel Biri or Hotel Milano, which are two of the hotels I know about. Maybe there are more but I don’t know about and I apologize for that.