Day 33: Padua

We had the pleasure of meeting gorgeous Sara today in Padua (pop 400,000), granddaughter to Renato, my dad's first cousin.  She is Francesco's niece.  Her mother Marina is sadly away on holidays, as is Renato as its Italy's holiday season.  Sara can speak excellent English.  She has just finished Year 11 and is hopeful to come to Australia for University or maybe for a few months after she finishes Year 12.  She is delightful and made the day so fantastic.  We met in a beautiful park called Prato della Valle, full of magnificent statues (87) around the perimeter and a very blue pond in the centre which the cranky park official told me (in Italian) to keep the kids away from. Got it. Interestingly we were nowhere near it.  Sara and Francesco had gifts for the children and a book for me which I will take great pleasure in reading.  On through the centre of the city past lots of impressive buildings including the church my Nonna used to speak of, St Anthony's and his Basilica. It was wonderful to see this church that I remember her praying to, and it was beautiful inside.  It is my second favourite church to the Vatican, most likely because of the nostalgia. The courtyard at the back was pretty and there is a enormous magnolia tree in the centre. It gave me more inspiration for our renovation. Francesco took us past the Palazzo Bo (University), Piazza delle Erbe where they hold the markets but were sadly closed for a siesta and The Palazzo della Ragione, among others.  Its a beautiful city, clean and noticeably quiet which Francesco said was because people were on holidays or having a siesta. A lot of people must sleep at lunchtime in Padua.  We had lunch in a buffet style restaurant where you can pick what you want (meat, pasta, salad, prosciutto, fruit) and then take your tray to the counter to pay.  It was a first and interesting to try. More sightseeing post lunch and another round of gelatos.  The heat was pretty intense and the kids tired by late afternoon so we called it a day.  We had walked and wheeled a long way and I felt very touched that they had given up their time to make our visit so thorough.  They were both so obliging and beautiful with the children, and the kids had thoroughly enjoyed their company.   Home via a car yard that had cars covered in hail nets.  Rick was most impressed so we stopped for some photos.  We had a home cooked meal with plenty of vegetables for the kids and relatively early night (10 pm) for a change.  It felt good to see this city that my Nonna had talked so much about as a child and to start to connect the dots.  I cant wait for tomorrow's trip to Passagno.