October 6, 2019 to October 9, 2019
Sunday October 6- Wednesday 9th October Final Details- Boxing the Bikes and Sightseeing in Vicenza and Padua.
October 6 Sunday - October 9 Wednesday
Final Details- Boxing the Bikes and Sightseeing in Vicenza and Padua.
Sunday- Dismantling and packing our bikes fairly straight forward though the boxes aren’t the best quality and are longer and higher than required. Cutting them down solves this issue but leaves a slight banana bend in the wall of one. A trip to the Lidl provides some strengthening for the walls and base, and parcel tape. Our creative artwork, with liberal use of words like ‘fragile’ and ‘bici’ does the rest. We hope. Job done!
Monday- As an alternative to visiting Venice which we enjoyed last year, we take a train trip to Vicenza. The convenience of a campground on a main bus route easily enables us to catch the number 15 bus to Mestre station and it’s a 30 minute train ride from there. Vicenza is a city of buildings designed by Palladio, a 16th century architect. This makes it an ideal centre for walking and sightseeing- especially on a Monday when most art galleries and museums are closed. The day is sunny and our mood relaxed. The walk from the railway station to the city walls is along a wide avenue with green space on both sides. It feels a little unusual in Italy where we’re used to narrow streets. There is a predominance of young students also.
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We continue walking towards the centre where the Basilica Palladiana takes our attention with its impressive loggia. Palladio had his design built over an existing gothic building which he mainly obscured. He was paid 5 ducats a month for most of his life so it was a good little earner though it wasn’t completed until 30 years after his death. The building is an immense length of white colonnades with the towering height of Torre Bissara at one end. The piazza is very quiet, confirming my conviction that while some tourist hotspots are oversubscribed, others receive few visitors after September.
We lunch in a piazza, finding it pleasant sitting in the autumn sun. Later the Cathedral becomes aperto and we visit. The Cathedrale di Vicenza has a pleasantly plain red brick exterior and is gothic in style with some beautiful frescoes and art pieces, including Dormitio Virginis, polyptyque de Lorenzo Veneziano (1366), the Madonna col bambino tra le Sante Maddalena e Lucia by Bartolomeo Montagna. In contrast to these rather formal pieces, Incoronazione della Vergine (1448) by Antonino di Niccolò da Venezia is rather appealing because of its faded pastel shades and puppet like figures.
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The return to Camp Rialto is quick, comfortable and inexpensive. The cheaper train ticket is around €5 and the return bus ticket €6 from campground to Mestre station for both of us.
Tuesday - Our final day in Italy , we decide to spend in Padua, a city on the same rail line as Vicenza. We visited Padua in 1979 and still recall enjoying The Basilica of St Antonio and the Giotto Chapel, but there are other attractions and it also looks like an easy city to walk about, with narrow streets and pedestrian areas. We later find that there is even a tram which runs on one rail and seems lighter and smaller than others we’ve experienced.
Following the same pattern as Monday we reach the tourist office reasonably early and take up their Musei of Padua ticket offer. For around €15 each we have access to a number of museums and galleries. The highlight is the Giotto frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel. We did retain quite a strong memory of our 1979 visit but also wondered how we managed the visit with a child. If I recall, Aaron was sedated with a bowl of pasta and sauce, purchased on the street beforehand.
There are clearly more precautions introduced now as the frescoes were found to have suffered from exposure to outside air and from having visiting groups that were too large. Consequently we get a booking time and join a group of about 20. We have to go into a sort of pressure chamber to watch a video while the internal air equalises. The frescoes have lost none of their charm, with colours that seem saturated but almost pastel shades at the same time. The blues are particularly evocative and are a reminder of the blue of the robe of Piero della Francesca’s Madonna del parto. The last judgement images look almost comical now, though I suspect that they have struck a nerve or two down the years.
The Basilica of San Antonio looks just as spectacular with its multi domes ss we recall it. Interestingly St Anthony has acquired the role, in NZ anyway, of finding lost objects. In Italy he has a much broader role. The cathedral’s interior is certainly grand but not overly ornate and its slightly dim lighting add an air of mystery. After visiting a couple of other musei, we walk back to the station and our train to Mestre.
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Wednesday: our departure from camping Rialto is straight forward. The office have assured me that they can arrange transport for ourselves and our bikes to Marco Polo Airport for the taxi rate. The van arrives quickly, a stretched VW Caddy which I fear won’t manage the bikes, but does, and the fee is a very reasonable €23.60. In fact the airport is so close to the campground that cycling between the two would be very straight forward.
Finishing a trip always presents the conflict between the joy of homeward anticipation and the slight sense of loss and the momentary feeling that maybe one would like to keep going despite knowing that home is calling. It’s an odd feeling- a little like the one you had after exams were over at Uni. So much preparation, then suddenly, it’s over.
Soon we’re on board our Emirates flight rejoicing over the fact that our bikes and bags weighed in almost exactly on our allowance. From my window seat I can see the towers and domes of Venice across the lagoon and then all the length of Italy stretches into the distance. There’s a promise of infinite cycling possibilities there...... another year perhaps.
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Tricia
4 years ago