Wednesday 13th September
This trip was booked as a low-fuss week embellishing the nearly-finished Padua & Verona pages on the Churches of Venice. Leaving a London severely gripped by Autumnal temperatures and fierce winds, it took a leap of imagination and faith to be packing t-shirts, but I gritted my teeth and managed. And the dinge and dark clouds of recent weeks lifted this morning to send me on my way with blue skies and fluffy white clouds. Having a train waiting on the platform at Balham to whisk me to East Croydon, and when I got there the train to Gatwick just pulling in, all went for the further lightening of my mood. The longish Automated check-in wait wasn't too bad and the security rigmarole went OK. However getting into the departure lounge and finding that your 12.10 flight is displaying that gate information is due at 12.35 is going to harsh anyone's buzz. The flight eventually left two hours late, and so we got to Venice Marco Polo just before 5.00. The pavement of the bus stops at Marco Polo is now further out, nearer the car park, and the bus to Padua is at the far left end, as you come out. The helpful actv chap who told me where it was also told me that the company that runs it, BusItalia, was on strike. He said I might wait, as it was due in 10 minutes, but if it didn't turn up there was his company's bus, to catch the train from Venice. Waiting with an Italian chap with good English we eventually decided that the bus wasn't coming and that the bus to Mestre was best, catching the train to Padua from there. With his Italian and my previous experience we had no problems. Except having to stand up in what was the rush hour train from Venice.
It was just after 7.00pm when I checked in to the Majestic Toscanelli and room 312 is seeming pretty perfect so far. It's a good size with a kettle, a sofa(-bed actually) and a marbly bathroom. And as I type this it's getting all dusky out my open window and all I can hear is church bells and a distant dog barking.
Venturing out into the dusk I made for UniVerso, the vegan burger joint I had patronised last time, crossing my fingers it hadn't closed. But it was open, had five customers (all female) in its now-nicer seating area, and a longer menu, with an English version even. I had the Vegan Chop - a tofu burger in a long seedy bun with cheese, mayo and salad, rosemary potatoes and a lemon soda. All v. tasty.

Thursday 14th September
My room is so quiet I left my window open. I'd set my alarm for 7.30 but a soft local church bell rang at the same time. Breakfast was pretty much as I remember it. Orange juice not too nasty, and I asked for a black coffee, rather than resort to the stewing stuff in the urn, which was much better. Muesli and pastries fine, except for the sugared-up croissants. Only a few tourists too, amongst the Italians, who mostly seemed like business people.
To churches today. The plan being to tour around some that need updating with regard to scaffolding, restorations and such, before getting to one not open last time, due to some big building work. Weather-wise it was dull and cool as I left the hotel, and so it continued, managing neither blue skies nor rain.
To Santa Maria dei Servi first, to see if the Donatello Crucifix was back from restoration. It was, and the work had inspired the removal of the quotes around Donatello's name. And the visit served to revise my entry for the church - I'd been a bit harsh originally. Then to San Francesco, to find the exterior scaffolding gone, and to add observations and details to my entry. Then to the Eremitani (see below right) to settle opening times, and because I like it. Santa Lucia had had the builders in last year - they were gone, but the church is uninteresting. The Scuola di San Rocco next door looked much more interesting on the frescoes front, but was temporarily closed due to electrical problems. I shall return. My plan was then to go and find something to say about the art I'd previously dismissed in the rather boring Duomo, but on the way I found San Clemente open - a first. The main interest here is the supposed Jacopo Bellini fresco fragment of the Madonna & Child. The side door of the Duomo was open so I snuck in, but a man with keys and squeaky shoes approached, making some unambiguous gestures.
I retraced my steps to get some savoury pastries and a slice of apple strudel for lunch and made my way back to my nice quiet room.
In the afternoon, after a snooze, the Bishop's Palace was almost empty. The service was very personal as the nice man took me upstairs to the second floor and the woman on duty up there followed me around a bit. Some good panels and canvases in the museum rooms, mostly from the Duomo next door, but some from other Paduan churches. Having the place to myself helped too, of course. No photos though. Some nice manuscripts in cases on the first floor.
There's nothing to even politely describe as nice in the Duomo, where there was annoying flashing as I sat typing this. But they were professionals with umbrellas and so that was alright then. After a wander in here - even the crypt is boring - I had to visit the Baptistery for a necessary Giusto fix. (I found out afterwards that several euros can be saved by buying a joint Palace/Baptistery ticket.)
A stroll down to the river followed, with the discovery of an information board telling of a lost church called Sant'Agnese, with nothing left but cloister remains in the nearby barracks, itself all overgrown and running to rack and ruin. I then took more photos of my all-time favourite Observatory tower (see above right) and did a winding walk ending up at the Prato della Valle, also finding a service on in San Daniele and managing a photo inside. Back to Capatoast for a mozzarella and tomato toasty and then to Venchi for my first gelato - a classic stracciatella and limone coppa.

Friday 15th September
Today was going to be a train trip to Treviso, but I decided to go with relaxing, remaining and sticking to my agenda of church-site improvements. It was very misty when I woke up but by the time I'd finished breakfast it was blue-sky sunny. I made my way indirectly to the Santo. A service was on, with benches in the centre in front of the high altar, so I sat on a bench by a pillar to begin to flesh out my entry with more detail, and not just the highlights. After a good circuit of the chapels and ambulatory (the very baroque Reliquary Chapel, which has the Saint Anthony chin reliquary as well as the better-known tongue one, I didn't linger in) I made my way through the cloisters to the museum. It costs €2.50 and begins with a bewildering maze of glass cases containing votive plaques and offerings and too much weird stuff for a non-believer to comprehend. This is followed by a room of facsimiles of Donatello's works around the high altar. But it's the unsignposted upstairs where the good stuff is displayed. There are sweet fresco fragments, including the lunette by Mantegna for the Basilica’s doorway and 18th century altarpieces by the likes of Tiepolo, Ballestra, Pittoni, and Piazzetta painted for the ambulatory chapels. Also a Carpaccio Madonna & Saints altarpiece on long-time loan, painted for the convent San Francesco di Pirano, it was looted by the Nazis and eventually returned here. The Santo website says that the original altar it was taken from has been readied for its return since at least 2000. A Titian sinopia from the scuola next door is so faint as to defy any comprehension. There are robes and silver stuff here too. After buying some books I went back into the Santo, having identified a painting by finding a postcard, and realised I had lost the handsome felt pouch I keep my tablet in. I suspected I'd left it on the bench where I'd first sat down, and I was right. Phew!
Back to my room, collecting a spinach and ricotta slice and almond tart on the way. They were too spinachy and too sugary respectively.
Later in the afternoon I took the new Padua Guidebook I'd bought in the Santo shop to the Duomo, too see if knowing a bit more about the altarpieces helped. It did, a bit. Then on to the Oratory di San Rocco, which was now open, but still had an electrician in. Just one hall of frescoes of the life of the Saint, but some good vivid scenes, by Gualtiero Padovano and Dominico Campagnola. A couple of them cunningly work the oratory's real oculus windows into their compositions. Back to UniVerso for their big vegan burger this time, potato croquettes with a ketchup dip and a LemonSoda. A bar of Lindt dark-choc covered marzipan found in a shop earlier embellished the evening tea experience nicely.

Saturday 16th September
Torrents fell in the night but a bright morning dawned, with just a few mosquito bites. I headed for the Eremitani Museo Civico as rain was forecast, and falling by then. On the way I visited Santa Maria del Carmine to see if I had been unduly harsh on it last time. I hadn't. The Pinacoteca in the Museo Civico has lots of good stuff, from Giotto to Tiepolo, with even some Flemish stuff, including a 'circle of' Rogier van der Weyden. The quality improves as you get into the 16th century, which is not something you'll hear me say often, as do the numbers of works. I spent a solid, and tiring, couple of hours, mostly recording paintings from churches, but also enjoying. The rain had stopped when I left, and I got myself a repeat of Thursday's lunch.
For my post-doze walk (in sunshine!) I headed first for a revisit to the finely-frescoed Oratorio San Michele, which should be open on the weekend from 4.00, but wasn't, so I headed north west in search of churches maybe open for Saturday evening services. I found one such, discovered three 'new' ones, one newly covered in scaffolding and one I'd identified all wrong! I also saw two cats (including one who meowed hoarsely at me and let me scratch his head), making five so far and three small basking lizards. I was also approached by four beggars, on streets where I was more or less the only other person. More beggars noticed this year, and mostly they approach you, or at least stand in porticoes, but never seem to sit down.

Verona