Along the Piòvego

Some fisherman throw their lines in the university district near the bus depot and hope to catch some fish in the Piòvego.

The pigeon is a marble fake, one of a series placed by a student of the local art high school in Padua which has its main building across the waterway.

Memoria e Luce

This monument, Memoria e Luce (Memory and Light), was inaugurated along Padua's Piovego river in 2007 as a symbol of friendship between Italy and USA and an appeal against violence in the world. It sits just a few steps away from the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua's most famous tourist destination, and the train station.

Designed by Daniel Libeskind, a finalist for Ground Zero's Freedom Tower area, it bears a twisted beam from the World Trade Center's South Tower, still with its original construction number visible after the destruction.

The Regione Veneto decided to place this project in Padua with the glass-and-metal "book" structure opening in the direction of the former WTC.

The monument can be accessed from the street at Via Giotto.

At night, sometimes the monument's illumination colors change in a nocturnal rainbow of memory and emotion.

For an Italian perspective of the monument, read an article from Il Sole 24 Ore:

http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/SoleOnLine4/Speciali/2007/11settembre/memoria-e-luce.shtml?uuid=27c776a6-5fa2-11dc-b5d3-00000e251029

For as elegant as it is, I do not believe that the Paduans truly feel much of anything for this monument. It is a strange testimonial because it is primarily displays a tragic American problem that, although had some effects in Italy, did not directly hit this country. Italians do not personally know people who died in those towers. September 11, 2001 was a TV account and act of violence that shocked the world but was absorbed at a distance, just like most of World War II was a terrible event that Americans did not have to suffer much on their soil.

Did the politicians in Padua believe that their medium-small city would appear more important on a world-scale with this kind of "international" monument? Is it appropriate here? I am an American here and even question it sometimes.

Change of Seasons

The city landscape moves from rich greens in April to burnt browns in June as we move into summer.

View from Via Cornaro

Clouds Hanging Over Prato della Valle

The Old City Walls

Padua is a medieval town, including 11 kilometers of fortified walls built in 1509 to protect the city against an Austria invasion. At that time Padua was under the control of La Serenissima (Venetian Republic).

This particular piece of the old city wall runs along today's Via Gattamelata. I cycle past it everyday as I go to work or into town for any reason. The wall and moat have been under restoration since January. They started by cleaning the stones on the wall which had turned dark. Then they cleaned up the wild plantlife that had grown up all around the water's edge. The rocks in the foreground were just delivered a few days ago to delineate the water's proper course, I imagine. On some days, I used to find people fishing down at the water, tucked away from the car traffic of the street. They will probably resume that activity soon, once these public works projects are complete.

Sunset at Portello

Hide and Don't Seek for awhile

In this country, they keep up us on our toes due to periodic restoration. This example of scaffolding went up over the astrological tower in Piazza dei Signori recently.

There is never any warning and these coverings just appear. Plus we citizens and tourists never know how long they are going to stay up. Sometimes monuments maintain their hidden status for upwards of a decade, especially on complicated projects such as Venice's Clock Tower in Piazza San Marco.

Here in Padua, we hope to see the calendar again soon, but in the meantime, we have this sweet kid smiling in an ad for the scientific village that is being developed in the city's industrial area, which is in a major transformation stage.

I'll take bets for how long you think this scaffolding will shroud its restoration patient. Let me know your estimates in month, year or decade increments. Thanks!

Ponte Corvo

Just a pic of the canal that runs past Ponte Corvo in full Spring bloom. I am off to the mountains for the weekend. It's Labor Day tomorrow so I am taking advantage of the long weekend. A presto!

Strange Curious Objects

Padua is soon going to trash its public waste and recycling bins. These almost-alien colorful containers that occupy the city sidewalks will be permanently removed by summer, according to the city administration. They will be replaced by house pick-up, a rather American idea.

For some time now, Padua has done away with these big candy-colored mounds in the center of the city, where they just didn't fit in the narrow medieval cobble-stone by-ways, but this phenomenon will soon travel to the city outskirts, too.

I wanted to capture them with a warm sunset light as an "addio".

They are also poignant when thinking about the Naples rubbish dilemma that lasted throughout last summer and the idea that in some places, the trash just never gets taken away properly. Fortunately Padua is not one of them.