Modena

After our hectic 3-city blitz (Padua, Venice, Verona), we needed a week to catch up on work and sleep... So we stayed in a nice place in the suburbs of a town called Modena (a pretty nice hotel at a very cheap price because it is in the middle of NOWHERE). Rest and work, we did. This place was very different from the tourist and university towns, we got to see what Italian suburbs are like.

It was a quirky experience: Our hotel was a 40-minute bus ride away from Modena; the public transportation buses also serve as school buses, so we spent a lot of time hangin’ out with Italian kids. Also, the buses did not run much more often than the school schedule (and extremely limited on weekends), so we had only a couple of choices of times if we wanted to go anywhere.

The 3 restaurants on our street (walking distance) are on a decidedly “Italian” schedule: closed every day from 1:30pm until 6:30pm; closed on Sundays; closed on Mondays; Closed either Saturday lunch or Saturday dinner. One was actually Only open on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, closed the rest of the time. The market had similar hours (or lack thereof). Vince, the newly-graduated MBA, is still puzzling over the business model, to say the least. We ate at the same pizza place almost every day, since it was the cheapest and it was open the most often (relatively speaking). We did go hungry that Sunday (before we learned that we would need to stock up) – because everything walk-able was closed... And the buses weren’t running.

But, since it was a week primarily for resting and working, the quirkiness just made us laugh most of the time (except for that hungry Sunday. Not cute.)

Since we had extra time on our hands, Vince got a new pair of jeans to replace the ones with the growing hole that was threatening to get pretty indecent.


So, about Modena:
It’s primarily known for olive oil, balsamic vinegar & spumanti… and really expensive car manufacturing. It is called “Motor Valley” because it’s the home of Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, and Ducati. There were always Ferraris outside our hotel and on the streets – test-driving them is an expensive but popular thing to do. One day there was a Ferrari parade, and owners drove their Ferraris through our neighborhood (I think there was some kind of event in the neighboring town). It was wild to see one after another driving by - I counted 32.


We went into “town” (Modena) one day and saw all the sights. It’s a really pretty town…

Seems like every town in Italy has really old, impressive churches, with 16th-century paintings & sculptures all over the walls and huge ceiling frescoes:

Now what all of you (or maybe just Corey) have been waiting for….

The Ferrari museum. We wanted to tour an actual factory, but we couldn’t:
- Ferrari: you have to own one to get in
- Maserati: farther out of town, can’t get to it by bus
- Lamborghini: it’s closed for “factory renovations” (locals say that “renovations” in this case means that there’s some super-secret car being built and factory tours all are canceled until the car debuts next spring)
So we settled for the Ferrari museum – it’s a big museum, tons of Ferraris, racing uniforms, and some cool exhibits.

This is the inside of a 60's Formula car - amazing how close you could get them.

This is the new Formula 1 steering wheel – there was an exhibit of the steering wheels over the years - more buttons & gauges added to every one.

They had some of the old pencil-drawn plans of the cars/engines - the picture doesn't quite do it justice, but it was really cool.

This is the “Hall of Victory” – a few of the cars that have won Formula 1 races – Trophies filled the large wall opposite.

Oh, Fair Verona

After the madness that was Venice, we traveled west to Verona. Made famous by Romeo and Juliet, it definitely is more than just a fictional backdrop of love (although that’s there too). We stayed a 15-minute bus ride outside of the town center, in an apartment with a kitchen. We took full advantage of that and a cheap market nearby to cook some great Italian meals; prosciutto and salami were cheap, fresh tortellini was 69 cents, a full bottle of oil and bottle balsamic vinegar was 4 Euros together, and a bottle of good red wine was about 2 Euros (a big contrast from Venice).

Verona is an exceptionally pretty city set below rolling hills and surrounded by a curving river. It is a combination of ancient Roman ruins, yellow, orange, and red colored Italian buildings with red-tiled roofs, beautiful churches, and sculptures from many periods. We purchased the Verona Card (we got these tourists cards for many of the cities we visited, they make site-seeing more convenient and affordable) and saw all but one site included on it.

The main square of Verona, the Pizza Bra, is dominated by this Roman Arena, the third largest Arena built by the Romans. It is really well preserved and today it is used for Operas. It would be pretty cool to see an Opera outdoors in an old Roman Arena.

Nearby is the Castelvecchio, an old castle that houses a museum of medieval and renaissance art. It is made almost entirely of brick and includes a really interesting bridge.

Piazza Erbe is surrounded by a hodgepodge of buildings, statues, and fountains. No guided walking tours in the less touristy towns, so we have no idea what is what, but it sure looks cool.

Continuing on was another square, the statue in the foreground is of Dante. We got the top of the Torre dei Lamberti (it actually had an elevator, which is awesome when you’re walking for miles everyday) and got the following view of the city:

Continuing on...

We then proceeded to see the sites of Romeo and Juliet, which is pretty bizarre since they are fictional characters. There are several sights in Verona that Shakespeare supposedly got his inspiration from. Here Juliet, played by Megan, stands on her balcony as hoards of tourist look on from below. We also saw “Romeo’s House” and “Julet’s Tomb”, both quite lame.

Across the river to the east is a Roman Amphitheater. Originally it was quite an impressive structure that continued up the hill with a monumental building at the top. Now the remnants of the Amphitheater remain, but a monastery and 18^th century Palace now sit above. The monastery houses ancient Roman sculptures, mosaics, and artifacts.

The Verona Card also included the four major churches of the city, which we have too many pictures of to cram into our blog. This is the interior of the Basilica di San Zeno, which we thought was quite nice. Behind this view are a pair of these sculpted bronze doors:

A Merchant in Venice

Get it? I used to be a merchant?
...Nevermind.

Venice is like a fairy tale, like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It is gorgeous, with canals crossing through the city, and the sea all around it. It’s made up of 117 tiny islands (“islets”), and has 409 bridges.

We got the 3-day unlimited public transportation pass, which allowed us to take the bus to our Hotel in the neighboring town of Mestre (the only “land” bus we took), and allowed us to hop on & off the ferries all day. The ferries work just like buses, with multiple routes, stations, tickets, and a schedule.
Here’s a “bus station” on the water:

ALL of the transportation in Venice is done by boat, including ambulances, taxis, and even the DHL delivery boat (below). It is amazing to have a whole city with no cars.

So let me clarify – while Venice is in total a little slice of heaven, there is the tourist center which is a little slice of hell (at least during high-tourist time in the middle of the day). It’s called Piazza San Marco, the center with all the historical must-see sights. It has long lines, and it’s a sea of crowded chaos, with loud, pushing, shoving crowds... And tourist-trap prices. But it’s a must-see, so we got in there (and got out). The 4 sights listed (and numbered) below are on San Marco Square. Here’s the square from the water (from the Grand Canal) -

Here’s the inside of the square:

Here are the San Marco Square sights:
1. San Marco Cathedral (built in its current from in 1063 – Byzantine architecture). I must admit, I understand why the line is so long - mosaic marble on the floor, mosaic tile & gold on the ceiling & walls... It is pretty incredible. (No pictures allowed inside so that you'll buy a postcard. We bought a postcard.)

2. The Doge’s palace (built in 1324 – gothic architecture) - which was the main governing center of Venice, also included the residence of the doge (duke), the courts, and the prison and dungeon.
Exterior of the Palace:

This is the impressive “Golden Staircase” – real gold and real painted/carved art.

The walls & ceilings of the Doge’s Palace are covered in gold and priceless art – we couldn’t take pictures inside, but we bought a couple of postcards to remember it by.

3. The Procuratie, (3 buildings surrounding the square), which has a museum with rooms and rooms of ancient and priceless art.

4. The Clock and Clock Tower, built in 1496. We took a very cool tour of the tower with a native Venetian. She shared lots of local facts and explained the workings of the clock & the history of the tower. (The clock builder and the subsequent caretakers had to live in the noisy clock tower and manually pull/adjust the weights every 12 Hours.) In addition to telling the time, it gives the lunar cycle and an astrological clock – so sailors and merchants relied on it for timing of voyages.

The Clock tower:

Our tour guide on top of the clock tower, with one of 2 bronze statues that hit the bell every hour.

During the nighttime, this same square is a magical, dream-like place to be:

During the day, as soon as we were done with the sights, we got OUT of San Marco and went...

Here:

And here…

And here. (Arsenale di Venezia)

And here. Sigh. We really enjoyed Venice in the evening.

We have been enjoying gelato nearly every day in Italy (or maybe just 2/3 of the days), and we have found that (as one may guess), it is always more expensive in the tourist center than in the “normal” or residential parts of the city. This was especially true in Venice: If we were ever lost (as one constantly finds oneself in Venice), we could gage how far we were from the square by the gelato prices – it went up by 10 cents every couple of blocks. But as always, we found our 1 euro scoop of gelato.

This is Vince in front of the famous Bridge of Rialto (and a sweet boat).

We had a wonderful time in Venice, we loved the ferries, the bridges, the views, the markets, and the food… We look forward to returning one day when we can be a little splurgier and take a gondola ride, stay right in the city (not Mestre) with a reasonably-working shower, and dine on the Grand Canal.

Padua, Who Knew?

We continued our journey into Italy traveling to Padua (Padova in Italy), which is about a half hour west of Venice by train. We chose Padua as a next stop primarily because staying in Venice on the weekend was significantly more expensive, but we were pleasantly surprised with the city. It is a medieval town, surrounded by a river (a very small river) and old city walls in certain places. It is now a university town, so the place was buzzing with college kids and mopeds.

Our hotel was a bit outside the main part of the city. On our walk in, we passed by one of entrances into old city.

This is the Capella degli Scrovegni, built by Enrico Scrovegni, who was part of a wealthy local family. It is built next to a small Roman Arena (this picture is from inside the Arena) and there used to be a large residence attached to the chapel. Inside are floor to ceiling frescoes painted by Giotto, with 38 panels depicting the life of Christ, including an amazing Last Judgment scene (which was inspired by Dante; Hell is a scary place). No pictures allowed, and we had to acclimate in a room for 30 minutes before entering, so that they could control the environment for preservation reasons.

This is the Palazzo della Ragione, built in the 12^th Century, which now houses market stalls on the ground floor, and is an exhibition hall on the second. The second floor wall are intricately painted and has a huge exposed wood ceiling. On either side of the Palazzo are two squares that have markets everyday; one square is for produce and the other for clothing.

The church to the left is the Padua Cathedral and the structure connected to the right is the Baptistry. The Baptistry is intricately painted in the style of Giotto and the domed ceiling is decorated with many famous Christian saints.

This is the Astronomy Observatory that was used by the University to study the sky. Today it houses a library of astronomy books.

At another square in the city was this really nice clock tower. This city is full of squares and many of the streets are closed off to traffic making it very walkable.

In the southern part of the city is the Piazza of Prato della Valle, a circular man-made river lined with statues. In the background on the left is the St. Giustina Church, the interior pictured below.

This is the side view of the Basilica di Sant’ Antonio. Really wish that we could take pictures inside, so please click on the link that takes you to the Wikipedia page. Almost the entire church is decorated in frescoes, and some of the side chapels are incredible. It also houses the tomb of St. Anthony, which is a gaudy white marble that people line up to touch (he is the saint of lost things). There is another section full of St. Anthony relics, which include his tongue, lower jaw, and his voice box, encased in gold chalices and boxes with glass so you can see it (creepy).