CC Travel Blog

Nov, 2006
For half a day, we chosed to go to Padua instead of Verona for two reasons:

1. Juliet and Romeo balcony in Verona is a 1920’s add-on fake, so the alternative is not attractive;
2. Cappella degli Scrovegni

Besides this beautiful and carefully preseved chapel, there are many other things to see in Padua. Italy’s second-oldest university is located in Padua and is open for public visit. The school was once attended by Dante, Copernicus, and Oliver Goldsmith. It also has the first biology lab for human autopsy, which was very exciting and secretive under the religious environment then.

Going to Padua is cheap, for less than $3 Euro per person and a half an hour train ride, we reached the hustle bustle train station. Because Padua is a campus town, it seemed a lot more chaotic but lively compared to the quiet romantic Venice.

Our first stop was the school of course.

Ancient stoney recognitions hanging on walls, these can be seen everywhere on this campus.

And here’s the old center court yard.

Walls with remaining paintings.

As for the autopsy, photography was not allowed. It was on the ground floor of a very small theatre like construction where the professor is the only one allowed to enter the ground floor and operate on the corpse, the students had to stand on a higher floor listening. The interior was so dark and the religious enviornment was so constrained that students most of the time could only close their eyes and listen rather than observe and watch.

Left the school, we went to our second stop, Chiesa degli Eremitani - church of hermits. The main purpose of visiting this church, the fallen fresco, from Life and Martyrdom of St. James & St. Christopher, painted by Padua-born Andrea Mantegna in 1457.

The fallen fresco.

With advanced technology, this is what the fresco should look like with tons of computer attempts.

We made a reservation online to see Cappella degli Scrovegni at around 5pm (yes, reservation is highly recommended since there is a very limited quotation of visitors allowed). When we got there, lines of people were already panned outside of the door.

Among all the historical art sites, this one probably had the best preservation effort. There are visiting time slots for roughly 50 minutes, 30 minutes for sitting at the decontamination chamer watching video and 20 minutes for staying inside. Once time is up, the usher made sure we all leave the site before the next group comes in.

The chapel is really small, so cheating in picture taking or staying longer is impossible. Anyhow, this is what the chapel interior looks like, painting by Giotto.

The fresco is truely amazing and beyond anything words can describe. I would strongly recommend anybody taking half a day to Padua and visit this wonderful breathtaking fresco.