We decided to stay in Padova instead of Venice. I had heard that it is very easy to get lost in Venice and the thought of hopping on and off boats with two bags, a baby and a stroller while arguing with my husband about which way to go didn’t sound appealing.
I found a much more reasonably priced place in Padova near the train station. It was another one of the budget convenience hotels that I seem to have become so fond of since we’ve been travelling with a baby. Although it wasn’t located in an industrial park like the last place in France, it did have the usual sketchy, I don’t want to be here after dark, train station area feel to it. These days charming is out and convenience is in.
Our trip was off to a rocky start after arriving very late to the airport for our crack of dawn flight and had to sprint to our gate. For Jim, this was just another check mark in the “reasons not to fly” column.
We arrived in Padova at 10:00 so after a little rest we headed to the train station to catch a train into Venice just in time for lunch. Out of necessity, we picked a touristy place just outside the train station along the main canal. The waves from passing boats would flood the floor of the restaurant. Although the food wasn’t memorable, it was our only canal side meal so it was interesting in that respect and memorable in that Sabine broke her first wine glass. She’s already a lush at 6 months.
After lunch we started walking around. Our guide book suggested “getting lost to see the real Venice. There is no need to “try” to get lost because it is a foregone conclusion that you will get lost. Jim thinks that the Italians learned how to post signs from the Germans. You can dutifully follow signs to a destination; however, at some point the signs will mysteriously disappear.
We finally got to St. Marks Square late in the afternoon and were unable to get into the cathedral so we decided to save that for another day.
We decided to wander around the streets near St. Marks and popped into Osteria Enoteca San Marco for a quick glass of wine and diaper change. It was actually one of the restaurants recommended in our guide book but we didn’t realize it at the time. After looking at the menu we decided that we’d try to eat there if Sabine would cooperate. Unfortunately, before we could order, little miss dinner spoiler decided it had been a long day and she was ready for it to be over. We didn’t want to disturb the other diners so we left and decided to try to return for lunch another day.
We hopped on one of the main boats that slowly cruised the main canal back to the train station so we could take a bunch of pictures. Before getting on the train back to Padua, we enjoyed a gelato and that ended up being dinner as the restaurant in our hotel was closed by the time we got back.
Unfortunately, our hotel had a baby bed with wide slats so while we went to brush our teeth that night little Sabine had wormed both of her legs through one of the holes up to her waist. We decided we weren’t all that keen on visiting an Italian emergency room so we had her sleep in our bed. It was a great recipe for compounding our sleep deprivation. Between crying and intermittently thrashing about, sleep was hard to come by for both mom and dad.
The next day we got a very late start as we tried to sleep in a bit. In our fatigued state, we thought Venice might be a little too much so we opted for a small town 40 minutes from Padova called Vicenza.
As it was Sunday and all of the retail shops were closed the main drag was pretty deserted. It looked like it was a pretty good place for shopping
The highlight of the town was the Olympic Theater which we almost decided not to visit, which would have been a mistake. It had an incredibly 3-D stage that was so realistic in its rendering of a street scene.
We wandered around the town, hitting the main square and a cute little wine bar while we waited for a restaurant to open for dinner. Unfortunately, the restaurant in our guide book was no longer in business, so we ended up in a touristy little pizza place. The food wasn’t all that memorable but the wait staff was. Sabine was really fussy so when our pizza came, the waiter offered to take her. He had a great time walking her around and showing off his parenting skills. A bunch of the women were fawning all over her but he was the only one who could get her to stop crying. He earned a generous tip that evening.
The next day we decided to brave Venice again. This time I knew that I wanted to get to St. Marks early before the lines got too long so we took the fast boat on the main canal directly to St. Marks. The line was already pretty long by the time we got there so instead of getting a coffee and feeding Sabine, I decided to just breastfeed her while standing in line.
St. Marks was really quite beautiful and I was very glad that I stood in line to see it but now as I’m writing this, I can’t for the life of me remember what it looked like. Unfortunately, pictures are not allowed so I can’t even to refer back to a photo. (#1 reason for writing the blog while on vacation instead of waiting for 2 months- you forget everything.)
After our visit to St. Marks we hit the Doge’s (Duke’s) Palace. The architecture of the palace had a Moorish feel to it and reminded of some of the places I’ve seen in Seville, Spain. The palace was quite lavish and well worth the visit. Who doesn’t love a palace? I think the appeal is imagining what your life would be like if you were that rich.
After touring St. Mark’s Square, we attempted to go back to the restaurant we had tried to eat at on our first trip to Venice. The restaurant was empty when we got there so thankfully there weren’t too many people to disturb. We had some amazing food but didn’t enjoy it very much because Sabine wasn’t very happy. We ended up taking turns walking with her outside the restaurant while the other would eat. We decided that our nice restaurant days were over. Move over Michelin starred restaurants and make room for TGIFridays and Applebees.
After our lunch, we decided to walk back to the train station and try to hit the Frari area and visit the Frari Church and the other sights in the area. It took most of the afternoon to make our way to the train station.
Our last day was spent in Padua. We started out with a visit to the Scrovegni Chapel which requires a reservation. In order to protect the frescoes, they only allow 25 people in at a time for a 15 minute interval. If you only have a short time in Padua, I would visit St. Anthony instead of the Scrovegni Chapel. It was ok but I wasn’t blown away by the frescoes.
Next we planned to do a little shopping but it began to rain so we stopped for a coffee. Unfortunately while having coffee and playing with Sabine in my lap, I noticed that Sabine had a blowout up the back of her diaper which resulted in a lap full of poo for me. Jim sent me to the bathroom while he changed Sabine’s diaper in the stroller. When I came out of the bathroom, the rain had started to come down in sheets so everyone who had been outside was now seated at the window of this café. Poor Jim had to change a diaper in the pouring rain with an audience of about 20 people.
We ended up having another coffee and some snacks at the café while we waited for the rain to subside. We had forgotten the rain gear for the stroller so we had to rig up our two umbrellas to protect Sabine from the rain.
We checked out the two main squares in Padua which were both ok but nothing special. It started to rain again so we popped into a pizza place for a quick pizza.
After lunch we headed down to see St. Anthony. Along the way we discovered the old part of town which was quite quaint. We didn’t have time to dawdle though as we had a short amount of time before getting the bus to the airport. The church is definitely on the pilgrimage route. The chapel containing St. Anthony’s tomb is has requests of people and pictures of their loved ones asking for St. Anthony’s help
On this trip we learned the hard lesson that if Ryan Air uses the airport, you do not want to fly there. Although the Treviso airport didn’t seem to be that much farther from the main Marco Polo airport, it was not on a train line so we were forced to catch a bus that made way too many stops, and doesn't really accommodate travelers. When we got to the bus, the driver said that we couldn’t buy tickets from him. We needed to get tickets at a tobacco shop. I ran back to the train station to look for a tobacco shop and after about 30 minutes of sprinting around asking people if they sold tickets, I finally found a newspaper stand across the street that sold tickets. By the time I got back to the bus stop, the bus had already left and we were forced to catch another one.
Sabine cried for most of the bus trip so we weren’t looking forward to the flight. Thankfully, she slept on the flight home. However, after this trip we decided to rethink our plan to go to St. Petersburg in August. We decided that somewhere low key was going to be a lot more relaxing.
