Sept 01 - Padova to Ferrera

 Sept 01 - Padova to Ferrera 

 A travel day. 


A train to Ferrara this morning and my first “OMG what have I done?” moment of  the day.  I thought I’d booked a couple of days in Ferrara on the basis that it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Town, well, one thing’s for sure, in and around the railway station is definitely NOT on their listing! 😳

Once we’d checked in and were out for a walk though everything improved remarkably.  Not far from our accommodation is the historic old town and this IS a UNESCO World Heritage Site 😀  


The first thing you see when walking towards the old town is the medieval Estense Castle.  Built in the late 1300’s this enormous brick castle, with four corner towers, continues to have a useable moat that is still fed by the river Po. It’s also home to its own museum but we decided to give that a miss until tomorrow. 


Moving on through the narrow and cobbled streets towards the main square, the Piazza Trento e Trieste, we then came across our next enormous building, Ferrara Cathedral.  Unfortunately this has been closed for several years, due to reno’s being done to fix earthquake damage, but nevertheless it’s still a spectacular looking building.  Intricately decorated with loads of medieval statues it also has an unusual pink striped bell tower, and a row of shops under ancient (somewhat wonky looking) wooden porticoes. 





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