7

The wood pigeons here go coo-COO, coo. Very loudly.

I was woken up twice by church bells.

 

If you thought we were going to Venice today: nope! Just kidding. We were all way too tired from yesterday so most of us woke up at 11am. I had a good breakfast of boccencini, yogurt, and ham and cream cheese on rice cake. Then Julias and I played a bit with the five decks of magic cards we found in the games cupboard (they also have jungle speed- I think we will make use of that tomorrow). Most of the decks were unplayable due to lack of land.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon were spent just relaxing and planning our day in Venice tomorrow. And wasting time on the Internet, there was some of that too. But there's only so much time you can use to take in a new county at once before you need a break.

At about 4, we went to a grocery store. The one nearest to us, about 300m away, was shut because it's Sunday. We walked to the one 1500m away (oooooo so far!). We got food, including a gigantic watermelon and pesto and chicken and some gluten free pasta. They sold whole rabbit meat as well as some tiny chicken-like bird meat, which I thought was interesting. They had a wine wall. They have an entire side of an aisle devoted to pasta, with about 1/8 of that selection of gluten free pastas at the end. Which is to say that there are different kinds of spaghetti to get (no 5, no 3, no 4, etc) that I could not tell the difference between. I was amazed by the gluten free selection: not just penne, but spaghetti and rotini and other kinds, and some very small ribbed tubes which we purchased. And all the gluten free pasta is GOOD pasta, because we're in Italy. So I'm very happy.

We also got some gluten free ice cream to share on the way home walking because it was very very hot.

We made dinner: fried chicken, carrots, and zucchini with garlic and olive oil and the little tube pastas, all with pesto. It was incredible. I knew it would be good, but not this good (it was really good).  We ate on the balcony next to the kitchen, next to the basil and tomato plants out there, watching other balconies with cats and the church steeple in the background and listening to the loud cicadas. In Padua/Padova. In Italy. It was a very atmospheric dining experience.

After dinner we went out to walk around the older parts of the city. It had cooled off significantly at this point, to a more manageable heat level. It got dark very soon after we left, but it was more like twilight then anything else. It was very nice, we walked through to a square with a big cathedral and tiny cobbled streets and overhanging buildings. Very medieval. There was a moat and a wall around the main square and surrounding streets.

There were lots of people out of all ages. I think because it's so hot during the day, people wait till it cools off, which is around 10pm. There were lots of gelato places with many customers, and several literal hole-in-the-wall places selling burritos and the like. The only downside from the walk was that Tobin really needed water once we start going, and this is the only trip so far on which we didn't bring water. But when we got to neat parts of the walk and after playing some twenty questions, he was alright.

And then we got home, and now I'm sitting on the couch, and tomorrow, Venice.