Villas, Chapels, and Trams - a Day Around Padua

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

The Maze (Locked)

The Stables

Today I drove Jim to work so the girls and I could map out an adventure of our own.  We decided to spend the day in and around  Padova (Padua), and started at a nearby villa: Villa Pisani.  When we drove up, the huge 114 room villa seemed so empty and deserted we thought it might even be closed for some reason.   But, it wasn't - we practically had the whole thing to ourselves, and quickly got used to that, getting a little annoyed to find a few others visitors in our 10 acre gardens.  Though we keep talking about visiting gardens, especially those with hedge mazes, this is the first time we have actually made it to one...and the hedge maze was closed!  It looked really cool though from the outside.  You have to find your way that center tower with Minerva on top.  That would have been fun. Our gardens housed a small cafe for our lunch near our stables, and then we went in and walked through the 114 rooms...spectacularly frescoed and furnished.  It was built for the Pisani family, a very rich and powerful family in the Veneto region, but has also housed Napoleon and other world leaders.  

The villa happened to have an art exhibition called "The Nobility of Work: Arts and Crafts in 19th and 20th Century Venetian Painting" - we all agreed that, even though it wasn't on the list of "must see" art in Italy and we couldn't name any of the artists we saw, it was our favorite of the art we've seen!  Glimpses of every day people doing ordinary things captured beautifully.  It was a great stumble  upon.    We spent far longer at the Villa than I intended, and I entertained thoughts of heading home right after, but we pushed forward with the plan - on to Padua.

We parked the car and found our way on foot to the Scovengi Chapel to see the fresco cycles painted by Giotti and considered to be "one of the most important masterpieces of Western art".  They carefully plan the visits to the Chapel to only allow a fixed number in at one time and to time the opening of the doors to control the temperature in the chapel to preserve the art.  Reservations are required, but we took our chances there would be last minute tickets and lucked out.  We were able to get in at 5:00 and spend our allotted 40 minutes - 20 for a movie (really a time to stablize temperature), 20 for viewing the art.  Most interesting is that the younger Scovengi built the entire chapel as pentinence for his father's grave sin of usury - charging interest when banking - a sin so grave it jeopardized your soul.  The panels along the wall tell the story of Jesus' life - I really should have studied up!  My girls are very curious creatures, and as became obvious in the Uffizi, my bare bones knowledge is not enough for them.  I see bible study in their near future.

Continuing with our tour of religious sites, we figured out the system for using the tram in Padua and took it (two stops too far accidentally which gave us more to see and further to walk) to the Basilica di St. Antonio, no longer in Italy, but part of the Vatican territory.   We were stopped at the entrance and told that Julia and I could not go in wearing our shorts.  I think the guard was surprised when we whipped some skirts out of the backpack, pulled them on over our shorts, and walked right in.  I'm glad we were stopped - so that I had a reason for carrying those around all day!   St. Anthony's is "one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Christendom." We saw his tongue, his jawbone, and his vocal cords in the Chapel of the Reliquaries and visited his tomb, which is surrounded by 9 reliefs portraying scences and miracles from the saint's life.   Many people were there to leave offerings, putting their hands on the tomb and saying silent prayers.


Instead of staying for dinner in Padua, we drove the hour home to have dinner with Jim.  We were too tired to leave the house again at that point, so Jim and Julia went to our local pizzeria and brought in dinner.  A few episodes of Seinfeld on DVD and it was time for bed!