A Romantic Rumble

I know I am in the city center of Padua when I hear the familiar rumble of car wheels rolling over the cobblestone streets. The soothing sound accompanies my steps as I walk under the porticos and along sidewalks while going to work, shopping and strolling from café to café with friends to have an aperitivo in the early evening.

Over the summer, many of the streets have been repaved because of special underground work that was done while the Paduans were on vacation at the beach. The city enjoyed a couple of months with very little traffic and few cars.

Now in September, the summer's work is being finished along Via Zabarella, seen in the picture below. The workmen carefully place each stone down, hammer it into the sandy mortar and fill in the gaps. A sober and elegant fan pattern emerges from the cobblestone design.



Each time I leave Padua for an extended stay elsewhere, such as re-entry to the US, I can't wait to come back to the deep, long, rolling, medieval sound of Padua's streets.