Aug 31 - Padova

 Aug 31 - Padova

 As our hotel practically backs onto it our first visit of the day was to the local church, the ‘Basilica of St Anthony’.  Famous throughout the religious world as a place of pilgrimage, due to it being the final resting place of St Anthony (the Patron Saint for the recovery of lost items!) this is a church where you get a bit of everything in a real mix of architectural styles. The exterior is characterised by its minaret-like Moorish towers, it’s Byzantine domes, and the Gothic style facade, while the inside has a number of really ornate Baroque style chapels.  All up, with its frescoes, paintings, and marble everywhere, it’s pretty spectacular and definitely worth a visit. 

Our next stop was to the Prato della Valle, the largest ‘square’ in Europe.  Although created in 1775 I’m not actually sure of its purpose other than it being a lovely open green space and home to fountains, canal, bridges and sculptures.  Later in the day though we also discovered that it’s a very nice place to people watch with a glass or two of Italy’s finest! 🥂

Not my photo! 🙂

This afternoon had us visiting Padua’s Botanical Garden, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Supposedly one of the treasures of the city we actually found it really disappointing.  Apparently it’s the oldest Botanical Garden in Europe but, although the layout was quite pleasant, it wasn't colourful as somewhere like Kew Gardens is, and in fact looked really drab and uncared for (with the exception of the water lily section).  It seriously looked like the place hadn’t seen a gardener for weeks which is a real shame.  For a while we were actually both wondering how they’d got their UNESCO listing (by post? 💰😆) when we came across a huge biodiversity greenhouse hiding behind the main gardens. This greenhouse has sections on tropical, sub-tropical, temperate, and arid climates, similar in idea to that of the ‘Eden Project’ in Cornwall, UK (but nowhere near as good) and so we presume this is what has been listed. 



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