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Padova Day 2

Beautiful day and perfect for our exploration of this lovely town. Headed into the old town – absolutely wonderful and character filled.
Piazza della Frutta, Piazza dei signori- 2 lovely squares surrounded by arched colonnades and historic buildings- market stalls set up with fruit and vegetables for sale. Lots of cafes and tables and chairs . People don’t do take away but rather sit and socialize or stand at the bar for short espresso.
Baptistery – next to Duomo
Decorated by Giusto de Menabuoi- all around the walls and roof dome. Duomo had no stained glass but huge with numerous domed sections- impressive.
Cafe Pedrocchi – supposedly a meeting place from 1831 for intellectuals . It is beautiful out and in and is now very upmarket . We had the Pedrocchi cake and coffee- both extremely rich. The coffee was a hot shot of black with a cold crime de menthe cream layer on top. The cake was similar with chocolate cake and chocolate interspersed with crime de menthe
Prato Della Valle- walked to this fabulous open space – circular surrounded by a canal which was lined with statues. Crossed little bridges to get the central space which was grassed. Lots very place to relax and we had our Lunch of bread and cheese and prosciutto which we had bought- many people doing the same thing
Basilica San Antonio
An impressive church housing the tomb of St Anthony which was very spectacular – huge space highly carved white marble with contrasting statues in black.
040 Padua 0055
Relaxed in piazza Della Frutta and Peter had a spritzer which is the popular local drink. Meal last night- found a very popular restaurant and had grilled scampi and mixed fried seafood – very good

Padova Day 1

Stayed at: Hotel Europa
17deg and showers
Our journey- easy exit from Vicenza – car park – only 35 euros for 3 days which was good. It only took 40 minutes to get to Padua, no trucks because it is a Sunday. We found hotel relatively easily and parked. More modern hotel but in an excellent location.
Scrovegni Chapel
Beautiful chapel built 1303 -1305 completely decorated by Giotto depicting all parts of Jesus’ life from his birth, to death and resurrection. Rich coloured and the rich blue of the ceiling with gold stars  is a standout . Scrovegni built the chapel because his father was a usurer and had made his money from it – in a way trying to buy his way to heaven! His father, the usurer was mentioned in Dante’s Inferno.
The museum next to the Scrovegni  had a huge collection of archaeological remains from the Padua area and Egyptian and much more including paintings by Tintoretto. Also a special collections of works by Lino Selvetina- excellent.
Observed a lot when viewing early religious works: Jesus is often portrayed as a curly haired redheaded baby and Mary has been given distinctively European features.

Vicenza Day 2

Villa la Rotunda – we thought it was a 30 minute walk but took at least 45 minutes – still a pleasant level walk.
The villa is probably Palladio’s most famous ones – completely symmetrical with central round decorated dome and the main rooms going off it. Fabulous fireplaces and frescoes (no photos allowed inside – they clearly wanted to market their internal postcard photos). Placed on hill with nice views around. It was built across the compass points to allow light into all rooms. It is now owned by the Valmarana family who also once owned the palazzo we are staying in. €20 entry was steep but worth it. We took a shorter route back and came back via the main square and the Basilica Palladiano. There was plenty of action with a wedding and many market type stalls seeming to represent different organisations.
Rabbit for dinner! Lots of rabbit and fish.. and beef and truffles

Vicenza Day 1

Getting to Vicenza: easy trip from South Tyrol to Vicenza by the motorway which was massed with trucks . However 3 lanes and speed limit of 130 km/hr meant fast driving requiring concentration. We found the suggested car park easy and walked with luggage to Palazzo where lady was waiting to show us into the apartment. Excellent location again.
Vicenza is synonymous with Palladio – the 16 century architect who built so many fabulous villas, public buildings and churches here. Best called a Roman style in a Renaissance way- very symmetrical with columns as the distinguishing feature.
Vicenza – old town is a pedestrian area so we could walk around and see and visit a number of Palladian buildings.
Highlights
• Teatro Olympica – fabulous roofed amphitheatre- with 3 d set  which was for a production of Oedipus Rex
• Palazzo Chiericati- which houses fabulous civic collection of paintings
• Basilica Palladiano- huge with green domed roof in main piazza
• Palazzo Barbarano da Porto which is also the Palladio museum ???? Great models of his buildings
• And of course palazzo Valmarana where we are staying in studio apartment – old style
By about 7pm each evening the centre of Vicenza begins to get really busy. Everyone comes out to shop and eat. All really well dressed!
Restaurant Il Molo was busy and trendy with generally younger people. The food was great – an interesting dish of cold mackerel on bed of pumpkin mash with sweet taste as well but on a hot plate. Second main was a plate of pasta Norma – eggplant and tomato – delicious and huge. The tiramisu was the best ever. 

What was amazing was the couple next to us ate 4 courses including ink pasta – how they managed it we don’t know!

Bellagio and Tyrol 26&27 September

After nice stay in Bellagio- good evening meal -Peter had lake fish and I had excellent seafood spaghetti.
Had easy drive down to car ferry and caught the 9.20 ferry to Varenna for a scenic drive across country to the Dolomites. Very good weather and looking very for driving.
Features of our scenic journey which was great: extremely windy road and the suggested 90kph in some parts was scary especially when you met an oncoming vehicle traveling fast
After climbing we then followed straight along a fertile valley then started to climb again on more windy roads. This was ski territory and we passed through a number of ski resort towns which looked ver Austrian and German. Saw snow on the mountain tops and the lifts and ski runs currently green grass and not operational. Eventually we seemed to be at the top with no trees. Stopped formorningtea of coffee and then shared a pizza at Avery Austrian restaurant. We eventually made it to Hotel Tyrol.
020 Tyrol 0052
We thought we were in Germany!! – German speaking , not Italian. Typical German Austrian buildings- another lovely room with pretty outlook to the mountains.