Veneto Vignettes

Being in Verona provided us a perfect place to see other parts of the Veneto, and our three weeks in Romeo and Juliette's hometown gave us enough time to see a number of interesting places, including Venice, Padua, Valpolicella, and Lake Garda.

Maya & Sandra

When last we visited Venice, we vowed not to return--far too touristy and overpriced, but at the urging of our AIRbnb host, Sonia, and being only an hour's train ride away, we decided to make another visit, and we were glad we did.

We shared our visit with an Israeli mother and daughter, Sandra and Maya, whom we met while dining at an Indian restaurant in Verona. They had never visited Venice and we were delighted to introduce them.

Grand Canal in Venice

Rick Steves says that the best way to start one's visit to Venice is to take the slow vaporetto (water bus) up the Grand Canal, and so we did.  The Grand Canal is lined with beautiful, centuries-old homes and palazzi.

On a lovely, sunny summer's day, the ride from the Santa Lucia train station to Saint Mark's Square is almost magical.  Once we arrived at Saint Mark's, it was clear that the crazy Venetian tourist season was in full bore, so we quickly hopped on another vaporetto heading to Murano, one of Venice's smaller outlying islands.

Glass blowing demo

Murano,  is like Venice in miniature, including canals, bridges and stately homes. It is famous for its blown glass--and there are certainly hundreds of shops on the island selling it, ranging in price from $10 tourist trinkets (our price range) to $20K or $30K  art works.

Touring Murano

Canal in Murano

After a while you do get overwhelmed by all the displayed glass works, but it was a pleasant place to pass an afternoon and shop for gifts. As it is not quite as overrun with tourists as the rest of Venice, it's a good introduction. After a couple of hours, Sandra and Maya decided to venture back over to Venice itself, while we opted to continue exploring Murano--agreeing to meet up at the train station for the return to Verona.

Late in the afternoon, we took the boat back to Venice, and had an early dinner in the Saint Zaccaria area, dining on white wine and a shared dish of mussels and clams in marinara sauce at the Hotel Restaurant Savoia and Jolanda. Clearly geared for the tourist trade, they still manage to serve wonderful Italian food. With a gelato from a stand near the train station, we ended up our surprisingly pleasant trip to Venice.

Another one-day excursion took us to Padua, which is located between Verona and Venice.  We had planned to take the train there, as we had to Venice, but arriving at the train station in a pouring rain storm and unable to find a parking place, we decided to drive.  Five minutes outside of town, the rain stopped, the sun came out, and when we arrived in Padua we found parking, with very little trouble.

Kiss of Judas--One of the Giotto Frescoes

Padua, or as they say Padova, was once a rich and independent city state and today is home to one of Italy's largest universities.

During our short one day visit, we clearly missed a lot of its interesting sights and treasures, but we were fortunate enough to see the Scrovegni Chapel and its stunning 14th century frescoes by Giotto.

To preserve these early renaissance masterpieces, you can visit the chapel in small groups and then only for twenty minutes at a time. We were blown away!

We would compare the impact to seeing the Sistine Chapel, but you are with 30 not 300 people and the visit is one of quiet awe, not the cattle car chaos of the Vatican.

Twenty minutes doesn't seem like enough time, but it allows you to look at all of the frescoes and marvel at the true mastery of Giotto, who is said to have altered the style of painting human figures which became a huge step in art and prefaced the Italian Renaissance.  It was a once in a life time event for us, and we were glad we had not let ourselves be deterred by a rain storm and fear of lack of parking.

Marble relief at St. Anthony's Tomb

Not Saint Anthony

We finished our time in Padua with a tour of the Basilica of Saint Anthony,   one of Italy's most venerated saints. The Basilica and his tomb are visited by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims annually, looking for his blessing and intercession.  It was humbling to see pilgrims, many clutching photos, touching the tomb and presumably asking the saint to protect/bless lost loved ones.

Fresco in St. Anthony's Basilica

None of the art works approached the impact of the Giotto frescoes, but we enjoyed our visit to this very spiritual and peaceful place.

Sue took a picture of Larry (above) while waiting to see the Giotto frescoes.  Who knew he might have been a model for one of the pictured saints?