Florence to Padua

Medici Chapel*Lauretian Library*Ferrari Museum*Scrovegni Chapel

15,548 steps

Today we made the short 2:45 minute drive from Florence to Padua.  We took our time leaving Florence visiting the Medici Library and sat at a cafe eating a very gooey chocolate croissant.  We then hauled our luggage the 25 minute walk to the parking garage and gratefully our car was still there and undamaged.

We made a 1 hour stop in Maranella - the home of Ferrari and visited the Ferrari museum.  I didn't think I could be enticed by such a fancy car, but wow - I might just be able to drive a Ferrari around town!  The entire museum smelled like new car smell - there were Ferraris dating from the 1950s, cars that raced, one of a kind cars, and luxury cars you might see driving around Hollywood California.  It was a nice break from looking at art.  Charlie was in heaven and when we went to the gift shop and there was a Lego Ferrari, he just couldn't resist purchasing it.

We arrived in Padua by 5:30 (just in time for Maren to skype in on Senior Class Officer meeting - (the joys of modern technology!).  Padua is quiet, sleepy, and smaller than Florence and not a tourist in site!  We are staying in our first Hotel - a family room with 5 twin beds (2 pushed together to make a "master bed"). At the moment Charlie is sleeping on the crack of the "master bed" and Sydney is enjoying her first bed without Charlie next to her.  I'm not sure who's going to get kicked out of the master bed first, me or Charlie - Sydney might just find one of us in her bed come morning.

Tonight we visited the Scrovegni Chapel - a chapel painted in frescoes entirely by Giotto.  It has a brilliantly blue ceiling with white stars.  Around the walls are stories from the Savior's life.  We had a fun time figuring out the scenes.  Before entering the chapel we had to sit in a room to dehumidify for 15 minutes.  Emma thought the oxegyn was being sucked out and complained that she was getting faint because all the water was being removed from the room - funny girl!

Dinner was a HAMBURGER!  We found a great Italian hamburger joint that would rival Smashburger (or we've just eaten too much pasta in the last 18 days).  This is a student town with one of the oldes Universities in Italy (1200s), Galileo was a prof here and Copernicus was a student.  Cheap eats are abundant!

Oh - I should add, Emma, Sydney, and Charlie all wore their soccer jerseys today that they bought in Florence. We have teams Barcelona, Madrid and Chelsea - we were stopped a couple of times by Italians who wondered how we could pledge allegiance to so many different teams.  A huge European cup soccer tournament is going on right now, and soccer is on everyone's mind.

Scrovegni Chapel

Scrovegni Chapel