After another productive week in the office, it was time to pack the bags again and head for holidays (ah thank you France, for your generosity when it comes to holidays!). This time, the plan was to head for Northern Croatia for a week. Since we were taking the car, we decided on a bit of a stop-over in Italy. After studying the maps and comparing options, we decided on Padova, not far from Venice.
A 6-hour drive or so from Cagnes-sur-Mer, we arrived in Padova late afternoon. Our first impression was very positive - it seemed like a tidy, historic, and lush university town, criss-crossed by canals and cobble-stoned streets. As we headed out to explore town, the impression only got better. As most cities in Italy, Padova has a rather esteemed history - apparently it was founded 1183 BC, making it the oldest city in northern Italy. It is also home to the second oldest, and one of the most famous universities in Italy (Galileo Galilei was a lecturer here in his heyday...).
We started our exploration with a walk around the Prato - a huge oval-shaped square hosting a street market. We visited a couple of the numerous churches in Italy - we were particularly impressed with the Romanesque Basilica Pontificia di Sant'Antonio di Padova - a truly sublime piece of architecture. But as often in Italy, the nicest way to take in the cities is just to walk around and enjoy the architecture, and take in the atmosphere. The place was pretty lively in spite of the absence of the students. What struck us as well was the lack of tourists - a place like this deserves to be a tourist attraction (but then I guess there is plenty of competition in Italy - not least nearby Venice). We finished off the day with a romantic dinner in an enoteca, just the perfect ending for a superb day!
Beforing going to sleep, we took another look at the map, and realized we were REALLY close to Venice, and came to the conclusion it would be a real shame to miss the opportunity for a quick visit, since we were in the neighbourhood, after all! So we decided to get up really early the next morning, and drive down to Venice, before heading towards Croatia (it was actually on the way, even).
Less than an hours drive later, we arrived, bright 'n early, parked our car, and headed off to explore... We'd spent a week in Venice a few years back, and really fell in love with the place. And our second visit surely confirmed Venice as one of our favourite places on the planet. It's just quite simply unique. Thankfully, as we arrived early, we were almost able to beat the tourist hordes to the main attraction - Piazza San Marco. Almost - there were already plenty of tourists - but the place wasn't overrun yet.
We then spent a couple of hours just strolling about along the canals - again for me the best way to enjoy Venice is to simply stroll around. The great thing about Venice is that "the old part" basically covers all of Venice, which means that 95% of the tourists are all on the main thoroughfare... It's actually quite easy to find peace and quite... We ended up having a nice, light lunch at a little bar overlooking a canal - just perfect.
And then, alas, it was time to leave Italy and head into Croatia. It was short but so sweet!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment