O mio babbino caro...

My Daddy came to visit me in Bologna! While we spent a good deal of time exploring Bologna, the churches, the library, the markets, the parks, we also went on two day trips, to Padua and to Florence.

Padua



Of course, Padua always sticks out in our minds because of St. Anthony, and Michael, Dad, and I did get to explore the Basilica of the saint, but not until after we saw Giotto's masterpiece: the Scrovegni Chapel.


First of all, getting into the chapel is quite the procedure. You need to make reservations at least twenty-four hours in advance for a fifteen-minute stay inside the small building. But then they want you to be there fifteen minutes early for the fifteen minutes you spend watching a video on Giotto and the chapel/having the air santitized, and then they let you in for fifteen minutes, but you'd better get out as soon as the timer goes off!


All of the ladies working at the adjacent art museum are very...passionate about their job, which means in this case that they want you to see all of the art, but in exactly the right way. Every time we would come to the beggining of a new hallway, a lady would approach us, "Have you already seen the chapel? What time's your appointment?" Then, pointing, "Well, you go to this room, then this room, then that room, and then you exit there. Make sure you're at the chapel fifteen minutes before!" And that's great, when it happens once or maybe twice, but try ten times. They would just appear from behind the art, always telling us where to go and how to exit to go to the chapel. Nevertheless, we did make it to Giotto's chapel on time, and saw all of the frescoes of the lives of Joachim and Anne, Mary, and Jesus, concluding in a giant (it took up the whole back wall) rendering of the final judgement.


St. Anthony's Basilica was beautiful, and it was refreshing to be in a church full of people. The basilica was full of colors of all different types: three different marbles, mosaics, frescoes... there was hardly a white space in the whole building! Another interesting part of the church was the chapel of relics. Three giant display cases filled with gold reliquaries containing relics of many saints, but mostly St. Anthony (including his incorrupt tongue).


Padua is a lovely little town, with a big university, idyllic streets, and picturesque canals. The three of us wandered through the open air market in what was once one of the biggest piazzas in Europe and one of the oldest botanical gardens in the world before heading back to Bologna.


Florence

I didn't think Florence would be as great the second time I went, but I was wrong. First of all, the weather was fantastic, with the sun shining on the River Arno and the leaves changing color. Second of all, I was able to see a lot of things I wasn't able to the first time around, like the outdoor leather market and the inside of the Duomo. It, like most major churches here, is filled with very important masterpieces and has a very long and impressive history. Hoever, even without knowing all about that, it is still a wonderful place to be. That's the point, right?

The walls of the Duomo were not as busy as those of the Basilica of Saint Anthoy, rather, they were mostly white, with gray stonework throughout. Nice stained glass, some good statues, but what really took the cake was the inside of the dome: depicted is an amazingly brilliant rendition of the Last Judgement (that seems to be the theme, doesn't it?). The only thing is, you have to crane your neck to look at it, but there's so much to see that you need to take breaks or else dislocate a vertebrae. What I really wanted to do was just lie on the floor to get a more complete view. But I also didn't want to be asked to leave the church, so I restrained myself. Dad and I went to Mass in the baptistery right across from the Duomo, and were pleasantly surprised to find a stunning display of gold-backgrounded mosaics covering the entire ceiling. Hint: normally you have to buy a ticket to see the baptistery, but if you happen to be there in time for the 11:30 Mass, I would recommend that instead.

In our wandering through this fair city, we stumbled upon one of the florentine specialties: the outdoor leather market. Florence is in a textile region, and you can tell. Coats, purses, shoes, gloves, everything you could want made out of leather and more is there in an extensive network of booths covering several streets. Adjacent is a gigantic fresh food market, inside a large, warehouse-type building. It's amazing the things you find when you aren't looking for them, like how we found the best view of Florence ever.

We were walking along the Arno, when we looked to our right and saw some steps going up a hill. Reaching the top of those, we found another set, then another, and another, until finally we saw where they led: a large piazza and a fantastic opportunity to look down on the city of Florence from above. It's called the Piazzale Michelangelo, and you should write that don on your list of things to see, if, in fact, you happen to have a list of things to see...

Signed, the Sengenblogger