Busy busy day. Slept in til 9AM which was quite nice. Maria suggested I travel to a couple of different places today so we worked out the bus/train schedules and off I went. We forgot to take into account that it was Sunday and fewer buses/trains run which made for a lot of extra waiting for me, but, as always, I was prepared with a book and didn’t mind sitting outside on a gorgeous day reading.
My first stop was Bassano del Grappa. The big sites here are the Torre Civico and the Ponte Vecchio. Torre Civico is a big watch tower with a clock on the side that you can climb up and view the city from.
Ponte Vecchio means Old Bridge. The bridge may be old but it is still beautiful with a lovely view of the surrounding city and the mountains.
My stop at Bassano was just a quick one so I hurried back to the train station to catch the one to Cittadella. Walking through the square there was an old man sitting on a chair playing guitar so horribly I wondered if he intended to accept money in exchange for him to stop playing. He just kept strumming two dissonant chords repeatedly. It was interesting.
I hopped on the train and there was another guy playing guitar, this one quite a bit better than the last. I got off at Cittadella and headed to the city walls. Pretty much the only thing to see at Cittadella are the walls, but man are they cool.
There are four entrances to the city at each cardinal direction. If I remember right, this one is the north entrance.
I walked back to the train station only to realize that I had just missed the last train for two hours. I thought there was one sooner, but the schedules are all weird on Sundays. I plopped myself down, ate my packed lunch of left over bruschetta, and read until the next train to Padova.
Padova is a pretty bustling city compared to some of the other towns I’ve been too. But it’s not too much, like it is in Milano. I started down the main road and came across the September 11th monument. I’m not really sure why Padova, Italy decided to construct a monument to 9/11 but whatever. It looks cool.
As you continue down the main road, there are a lot of street musicians, including an accordion player, a guitarist, and a didgeridoo player. The didgeridoo guy was definitely my favorite. I know he sat there playing for at least an hour because he hadn’t moved when I made my back to the train station.
Walking towards the duomo there was a band playing a concert in one of the squares. It was very festive music with guitars and an oboe. I sat down for a bit and listened before I went to the duomo. The Padova duomo wasn’t very impressive, but here’s a picture anyway:
Padova is famous for having a church that houses some remains of St. Anthony. The church is beautiful and the streets are lined with little booths where you can buy St. Anthony souvenirs. My mom’s favorite saint is St. Anthony so I really enjoyed seeing this particular church. He really is helpful in finding things when they’re lost!
That concluded my wandering around Padova. Back to the train station to get back to Vicenza. Maria picked me up with two of her friends, Marco and his wife Valentina. They were both very nice. There was a festival going on that was very similar to Taste Addison, although on a much smaller scale. There were little booths with people selling things and plenty of food and drink. The main headliner was a woman who was voted the number one Janis Joplin impersonator. I think the band’s name was Spiorock. She was definitely good. They played quite a random assortment of tunes, but it was a good concert.
I particularly enjoyed the extraordinarily drunk guy who was being held up by another guy who I don’t think even knew him. The drunk guy was really into the concert and seemed to be having such a good time, he didn’t notice that his glasses fell off his face and waved them away when someone tried to give them back. It was all pretty entertaining. Hopefully, he made it home okay.
The concert ended and we came back to the apartment. Another successful and exhausting day over. Tomorrow, I head to Venezia!!!!!
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