Getting out the maps, calculator, and the Rick Steves' Italy book, we begin to plan our two nights in Padua (Padova is the Italian spelling). We will be seeing the sights in Padua, and spending a day in Venice and a day in Ravenna. Our hotel reservations were made for two nights at the Hotel Casa del Pellegrino. We stopped for a wonderful lunch, which by now was our priority as we traveled on our days away from the villa. After a somewhat confusing drive around the city streets of Padua, maybe due to the wine consumption, we arrived and were able to park in our first hotel secured parking lot. I have to admit that it made me wonder about the security of the area where we would be staying, even though we were right across the street from the Basillica of St. Anthony. Guarding the church (not necessarily us) is Donatello's life-size equestrian statue of the Venetian general, Gattamelata. I waited and waited for the pigeons to move off the general's head, but some things never change, especially pigeons!
The story of "the bell" from Padua is one of my favorites. From the moment we checked into the hotel, I loved everything about this bell and wondered if there was any chance that they would sell it to me. It reminded me of my therapy dog Hena who learned to ring a silver bell for the entertainment of the children in the hospital. I thought about how nice a brass bell would look on my living room coffee table and how it could symbolize the ringing of all the many bells throughout our Italy trip. How was I going to explain my desire to buy this bell to a hotel staff that was extremely friendly but who spoke Italian and understood very little English. If you know me you know that I am very optimistic and will try anything at least once! Once I told the Funsome Fivesome about my plan, they just rolled their eyes and laughed.
The first desk clerk just smiled and nodded her head while I went through my hand communications about the bell. I took out my credit card and offered it to her, only to be told, "No English, sorry." I tried the next clerk, and then the next, and finally one day I met the manager. Security cameras were now focused directly on me as I rang the bell every time I passed the counter. Danalia, the first woman clerk, seemed to be understanding more each day about my request and at one point she even pretended to be putting the bell in my purse. The day came when it was time to check out and by that time, I knew there was no way that I was going to convince them to sell the bell to me. At my wits end, I decided to draw a picture and leave it with Danalia. Maybe someday they would understand that if not that exact bell, a similar one would be wonderful and that cost was not an issue. Four weeks after I was home, I received an exciting email from Hotel Casa Pellegrino saying that they had a bell that they would be sending to me if I would pay for it and the shipping cost. To make an already long story short, there is a bell from Padua on my coffee table in my living room! Someday I hope to have a visitor from Padua come to my home and ring the bell that she mailed to her crazy from from the United States. On very special occasions, Hena is allowed to ring my bell!
How many pictures are there of us eating and drinking? Guess, just for the fun of it. Ha! I will count them and give a total at the end of this blog/book.
We did do some other things beside eat and try to buy a bell in Padua. The Scrovegni Chapel was an experience that was unbelievable. I think it was truly a divine experience from beginning to end. In order to see this renovated chapel with it's walls of 40 frescoes by Giotto, you must book reservations in advance. Only 25 people are allowed in the chapel at a time and you are only allowed 15 minutes to see it. We decided rather late one evening to walk over and see if we could make reservations for the next day. Amazingly there were very few people there and we were told that we could enter in about 30 minutes if we wanted to wait. Before entering the door to the actual chapel you must spend time in a special room to watch an instructive video and to establish humidity levels before continuing into the chapel. No photos allowed, but the miracle was that the five of us were the only visitors along with the required guide for 15 minutes. How fortunate that we had an art history professor in our group!
We headed to Venice by train and were excited to "shop until we dropped". It was going to be jewelry day, and we could hardly wait to get to San Marco Piazza. Murano glass jewelry was purchased by all, some even for friends and relatives! It was a very hot day, and the humidity was high, a perfect reason to spend our hours in air-conditioned shops!
Ravenna, the place to go to see the best Byzantine mosaics! We visited the Basilica di San Vitale and its adjacent Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, and the famous Basilica di Sant'-Apollinare Nuovo. Churches that are 1,500 years old, are decorated in brilliant mosaics. The walls and ceilings sparkle with colorful biblical scenes. The mausoleum is very dark with only a small amount of light seeping through a thin alabaster panel. The stars on the dome reminded me of a child's bedroom that have glow in the dark stars painted on the ceilings and made me forget that I was standing in a burial place.
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