178 – Thursday 15th October 2015 – Padua … to be or not to be, but not in Elsinore?
We woke and thought are we a bit citied out. Change of plan … need to see water and less buildings so headed for the sea …. Drove for a bit and passed so close to Padua, a small change of plan again … into Padua we went. We had picked Kerstin up from here in August and the little we had seen looked interesting and she had bequeathed us some bumpf.
We refrained from paying the EUR13 to get into the Byzantine mosaics … seems you had to book way in advance and be decontaminated for 15 mins for a 15 min viewing …. our lack of showering since Milan might have left us in the decontamination unit for a bit longer than 15 mins!!!
However, it is a good place to visit …. Basillica San Antonia, patron saint, was free, yay, and a whole complex of church, cloisters and museum (thankfully shut or we might have felt obliged to enter!). The relics of various saints were are bit perturbing … we could even see a set of teeth. You, dear reader, are lucky … no internal photos allowed!
Padua: Modern door on a rebuilt church – rather refreshing that they did not try, as so many others have, to recreate what was there before.
Prato della Valle, just by where we parked and possibly Padua’s most striking area.
Fab view looking back at the church near the parking .. so many statues.
No statue … living and breathing!
Into the main city proper and the Chuch of San Antonio on the right
So few people look up – usually worth it
An illegal photo taken inside the Church of San Antonio … the sculptures around the shrine were skilful.
The cloisters
Spot J’s unexpected audience – he is on map reading and tour planning today duties .. J that is, not the pigeon!
Lovely architecture throughout the city.
Old horse ties have found a new use
Our picnic lunch view. A student city so lots of bikes.
On the side of the ‘erb market
Drove onto Chioggia, part of the same complex of lagoons on the Adriatic Sea as Venice, and one of the main fishing ports of Italy. Eventually we returned to a parking we had previously spurned. But only after a stop to find an alternative Parking when a lady reversed her mini into our bike rack … fortunately no damage to us other than a slightly wobbly bike rung stand, compared to her shattered rear window; we returned to the Parking we had spurned. Night passed fine with a minor exception taken to the local busses running their engines from 5.00 am before departing and more inconsiderate rain hammering our roof…
179 – Friday 16th October 2015 – Chioggia
K ran solo as J still nursing remnants of a cold, and spotted laundrette and post office – both required!
Leisurely start; think we are a bit citied out and exhausted after Milan, Verona, Soave, Vicenze and Padua …. Chioggia is essentially still a locals town. We chatted to our German and Belgian neighbours, to some Canadian ladies and an Irish chap, who spotted J’s Irish Rugby cap. All relaxed and friendly. We cleaned Chardonnay and took two bags of laundry f(or a walk) to the laundrette. Got bored watching the machines spin so vacated to a nearby bar for a shared rather pleasant red. Earlier we had received some sad news … our friend Andrea had suffered a massive heart attack and died, so raised a glass to her. She was fit and not even retirement age … again another.
Subsequent walk up to the end of the spit and walk back along one of the side streets – carrying bags of now clean laundry! Lovely town. Having paid for 24 hrs, we are going to use it and stay put till tomorrow. We all need a down day sometimes.
Pix speak for themselves …
Not sure the Vespa would cope with the Ikea laundry bag … certainly not image wise!
More real than Venice … lots of washing out.
Neither of us had seen this before … posters on lots of walls to commemorate the dead.
Fishing is the main industry here; one Italy’s major fish trading hubs … but still local fishermen … work clothes drying
A proper haberdashers shop … when I used to dressmaker, I had to go to London to get anything like the choice of buttons.
Sunset over the boats and nets on our walk home – a perfect end.
Clune Gap Years 
Lovely photos, so sad about your friend, RIP. As usual great blog! Xxxxx love and miss you both.
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Thanks. Another justification, as if we need it, to keep travelling. X
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