Padua

Sydney and I planned to have a "Shakespeare week," touring Padua and Verona, both settings of Shakespearean plays. We planned on going to Verona first, spending the night, then heading to Padua. However, we found out the day before our scheduled departure that the train to Verona was sold out. No big deal, we just decided to see Padua first. We tentatively planned on catching the 9:30 train (yes, we rarely buy tickets ahead of time. Flying by the seat of our pants is so much more exciting). We found ourselves moving rather slowly the following morning (shocking, I know), and ended up taking the 11:30 train instead. We found our assigned seats next to a young, friendly couple from New York City. They were taking a 5 day whirlwind tour of Italy for their 10th anniversary. We talked for quite a while about travel and Italy and how to make the perfect al dente pasta. They mentioned a trip they had taken to Britian, so we asked what they recommended seeing in the London area, and whether they prefer Cambridge or Oxford. They said that Cambridge was prettier, but Oxford is interesting because you can visit the old haunts of the Inklings. "That's odd." I thought. Perhaps the Inklings are more popular than I thought. After throwing around the names of Tolkien, Lewis, and Sayers, Bosco proceeded to tell us about their visit to the place where Bunyan was imprisioned. Then they mentioned Spurgeon, and attending a service at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. Then Wesley and the piano on which Charles composed hymns. We were surprised to discover that all four of us were like-minded Christians. Later on in conversation, the topic of education was mentioned. Heather and Bosco mentioned that they had just been to an educational conference in the states. They were thinking about homeschooling their young daughters. Classically. Homeschooling. It was quite an amazing conversation. Very providential. None of us even planned on being on that train. What are the odds? I was reminded of how God orchestrates everything, even the little things. I was encouraged to cross paths with believers in such an unlikely place. He knew that we needed that small reminder of His love and guidance.



We wished our new friends well and alighted in Padua. We stopped by an internet cafe to let our bed and breakfast know what time we planned to arrive in Verona. While internet surfing, Sydney contemplated printing off a map of the city. "Nah," we reasoned. "How big could Padua be?" Famous last words.



We wandered around. All around. Not in the city center. It was lovely though. The only problem with the aimless wandering and getting lost was that we had a very important appointment. We had scheduled a time slot to see Giotto's frescoes at the Scrovegni Chapel. We asked a mother with her two little boys for directions to the Chapel. The boys were excited to know something that a grown person didn't know, so they started telling us all of the landmarks around the chapel, "La Capella degli Scrovegni è vicino la Gardini Garibaldi, e vicino questa e quella. . ." Their mother tried to tell them that we probably didn't know where those things were either, then pointed us in the right direction.


We arrived at the ticket desk just minutes late for our reserved time. I had read on the internet that if you are only 1 minute late, you lose your time slot and have to purchase another one (hoping that there is another open slot). Luckily, we didn't have to pay for another time slot and the lady just sent us on through. Perhaps it was because we spoke to her in Italian. We had to watch a video on the chapel for 15 minutes in a climate controlled room, then we were allowed to view the frescoes for 15 minutes.



Giotto is considered by many to be the very first Renaissance painter. Paintings during the Middle Ages for the most part looked the same. Static. Disproportional. And very gold. Florence is full of these suckers.

Giotto, however began to work out the complexities of human proportion. He also began implementing perspective and placed his figures in a 3 dimensional setting, naturalistic setting (as opposed to the gold leaf background above). All Renaissance painters built on the foundations laid by Giotto. His works may not look as impressive as those of the Renaissance masters, but they really are astounding because he was first. He looked at the world around him and looked at the paintings of his day and thought, "You know what? That's not what people really look like. And that's not what landscapes look like. And that's definitely not what babies look like." And he took major steps to remedy those things. Hence, the Scrovegni Chapel is huge in the story of art. It was amazing to see it face to face.

Note: These 2 pictures aren't mine. Cameras were sooo not allowed in there.


Our 15 minutes were up all too soon. We consoled ourselves with coffee. Here. Yes, this is a cafè. With ice sculptures and a grand piano. I'm thinking Starbucks needs to step up their act.