Padova Impressions, Week 1.5

The Prato, near our house.

We've been here for a week and a half, and we are all starting to feel more comfortable in Padova. I haven't had as much time to write as I'd hoped- this week has been full of shopping, cleaning, and finding my way around!

Padova is a big city. As I may have mentioned, I didn't really have time to do a lot of research before we came. Dave told me that it was a university town, so in my mind I was picturing Ann Arbor. Apparently during the school year, it's about five times the size of Ann Arbor! It's big. There are two trams and 25ish bus lines that provide public transport. During the morning when everyone is traveling to work and school, every single bus and tram is full. The city itself has suburbs.

Also in the Prato.

Up until I spent two weeks in London in 2000, I thought I'd enjoy living in a big city. After just those two weeks, I was tired of feeling constantly dirty and missed quiet, green space.

Padova is gorgeous, but it is dirty. There is a large, large population of people here who smoke. Walking around, you will frequently walk through someone's smoke, and definitely will find cigarette butts on the ground. There is a lot of litter as well as graffiti on every block. It hasn't rained since we've been here, and I'm guessing that the lack of water washing away dirt adds to the grime. I've found the level of dirt tolerable, because it's still less than London. We take our shoes off at the door every time we enter as well.

Gorgeous.

I haven't had the feeling of needing green space, though. Our apartment is quiet, and has a nice, sunny courtyard out the window. When I need a respite from the bustle, the apartment has been great. (Especially since the boys started school last week.) As Dave has mentioned, he also did a great job of choosing a spot. We are right near the Prato della Valle, which is a gigantic open oval with a fountain, grass, statues, and a canal. It's a smaller, Italian version of the area around Buckingham Fountain in Chicago. We walk near the Prato every day, and it gives me the illusion of openness and green space.

While there is graffiti and litter, the grass here is pristine. I was hoping that the boys could play some soccer in the Prato, but virtually nobody steps on the grass. For a week, we looked for somewhere we could play soccer. The parks are only open a few hours each day right now, and most have rules posted that forbid soccer and other sports. It's an interesting contrast to how the buildings and streets are cared for.

Another key factor for me is that there is sun here. Almost. Every. Day. Another mom told me yesterday that the winter has been unusually mild so far, but I'll take it. We've only had one day of fog- the other days we've had beautiful blue skies. The high temperatures have ranged from 42 degrees to 55. Lovely.

So while we are in a larger city than I expected, I'm enjoying it so far. It's been a bit since I've published- if I keep working on ideas and adding more here, nothing will ever be posted. I'm trying to do better!

After leaving the park we discovered that we weren't supposed to have soccer balls there. Oops.