Padua in Bloom

Recently this tower was in full bloom. I took this picture in Arcella, the part of Padua north of the train station.

This area of the city usually gets a bad wrap because some neighborhoods have been infested with dubious characters and some desperate immigrants in recent years. However, one look at this marvelous house covered is such buxom blossoms would make anyone want to move here in a flash.

Can't you just imagine having Sunday lunch on the terrace at the top of this turret with lilacs dripping from the canopy? Lovely, yes.

Buona primavera!

Happy Spring!

It's Spring, Damn it!

Paduans, like me, are dying for Spring. It just doesn't want to come on full throttle.

After two days of overcast or hazy days and fairly cool temps, the sky decided to clear out this Sunday afternoon. Then the Paduan proceeded to literally flood the piazze. The café tables were sprawled all across Piazza dei Signori and everyone filled them! It was time for a wonderful spritz in the vanishing sun of a Spring day. Here, we are starting to worry that we are going to go from a very cool season to the preludes of summer next week, when the climate should finally click over. For now, it still seems like Spring is in some kind of slump.

Cherry Blossoms on Opposite Sides of the Pond

After about 25 years, I was lucky enough to be in Washington, D.C. at the peak of the cherry blossom season. It was fabulous for the hot spring sun that day, cobalt blue skies and bursting flowers.

It struck me as strange to be there for that famous time of year because although I grew up nearby, we basically never went to see them. Baltimore, my home town located 40 miles away, tends to view that season in the capital city as a hectic traffic mess, which honestly it is on a peak weekend, but that bars them from even trying to go see the spectacle.

This year I was able to get into downtown D.C. on a Thursday so traffic wasn't any unusual problem (although there is always too much traffic there) and visited for other reasons but found myself completely and pleasantly surprised by the flower event along the mall.

Two weeks later, there is a cherry tree which has peaked outside my house in Padua. This will be the last season I can enjoy this albero, one thing I will very soon leave behind from this rented abode.

Padua:





(Official move to the new house scheduled 24 April.)