He finally went to Padua

Updated 10/21/2025

Padua, 10/20/2025 - 10/22/2025

Impressions: Originally I was going to do Verona for 2 days and 3 days here but ended up swapping them, I think it was the right call. Back to a smaller and (thankfully) less touristy city (I'm such a hypocrite).

Padova Piazza 1 — They sure do like the big piazzas here.

Padova Piazza 2 — If I was paying attention I would have found a better angle so as to avoid the stupid lightpole.

They have lots of covered sidewalks again here, and it's been kind of rainy today just to prove the town right. What is cool is the little stalls they have in them, selling everything you'd otherwise go to the supermarket for - meats, cheeses, fruit, artisanal everything... nice!

One entrance to old Padua — One of the entrances to the old part.

Covered galleries with shops — Maybe these are in other cities too but it's the first time I've seen this...

The Accomodations

The apartment in Padua — A sweet little one bedroom place. Except for the bed. You know it's going to be a long night when there's a deep valley in the middle of the mattress...

Il Duomo, Battistero di San Giovanni Battista, and Museo Diocesano

All three are part of the same complex. The Duomo is free but the Battistero (baptismal chamber) and museum are not and come in a package deal.

Il Duomo

The Duomo is just okay by Italian standards, so "just okay" that I forgot to shoot an overview of the interior.

Duomo exterior — I guess the outside isn't much to look at either...

Battistero di San Giovanni Battista

Another case of mighty ambition resulting in an overall impressive effect, but the work itself is just okay - it was painted in the late 1300s so we'll give him a pass.

Can you imagine how much ass Michelangelo or Raphael would have kicked on something like this?

Museo Diocesano

Some nice stuff. In particular there is an exhibition of illustrated bible stories from the 1300s that demonstrate that comic books (or "graphic novels" if you prefer) as an art form go back waaayyyy further than we usually think about.

An old hymn book — That nice volunteer at Santa Maria in Organo in Verona also showed me the organ,and where the organ player sits, and where the music was. It's quite a distance, and the music stand was maybe 2 feet tall. I meant to ask him about the hymn books - well, here you go, and yes they're close to 2 feet high, with a musical notation something like guitar tablature I guess?

Bible comics 1 — Oh a comic/graphic novel *wasn't* the first thing you thought of?

Adoration of the Magi by Bassano (?), 1590s

Madonna and Child Appear to Saint Phillip by Tiepolo, 1778. Sure, go see a Tiepolo painting in any random city. Whatever, Italy.

Saint Carl and the Assumption of the Virgin by Pietro Damini, circa 1616. It's really good, and... different somehow. Look at the faces, they're somehow ordinary and specific instead of the usual heroic stuff.

Capilla degli Scrovegni by Giotto

Copy what I said about the Battistero di San Giovanni Battista but even more so since it was painted in the early 1300s. Totally a necessary step to get from flat Byzantine representations to the full on masterworks that started being produced in the mid-1500s. What I love about this one is the representation of hell - Hieronymus Bosch either saw or knew of this one, or somehow channeled Giotto when he made The Garden of Earthly Delights.

Scrovegni detail 2 — Check out Satan eating one person and pooping out another... or is the *same* person?! Ouch.

Musei Eremetani

A package deal with the Scrovegni but it's far from a throw-in. An outstanding collection of both antiquities and (mostly) religious paintings.

Time for Art

Celebratory Painting for Rectors Jacopo and Giovanni Soranzo by Jacopo Negretti, late 1500s (?). The brothers must have been quite a big deal because apart from awesome, this painting is huge - 12 or 15 feet wide maybe.

More paintings from the Musei Eremetani