For our first Saturday trip we went to Mantova (English name: Mantua) and we saw two palaces (Palazzo Te and Palazzo Ducale) that were cool and had a some really great paintings and such. However, because of the fog I can only say that I went to Mantova, not that I've actually seen Mantova. The whole city was covered in heavy fog that lasted the entire day. Even at 2pm you could not see anything but lights on the other side of a piazza. But really, the highlight of the day trip was our lunch that stretched out for three hours.

Lunch in Mantova

The following weekend we went to Padova, which turned out to be great town with lots of action, at least on a Saturday. There were at least four large markets set up in various piazzas around town. These markets are like traveling malls and grocery stores because the vendors just set up their stand in the morning and move on in the afternoon. In Ferrara these markets appear on Mondays and Fridays; I guess we're not important enough for a Saturday market. Anyway, on our tour we saw the main sites: three big churches, a small church, and the Jewish ghetto. While churches are great and all, the best thing about Padova was that there were people on the streets everywhere. I guess it helps that Carnevale is going on. Outside of Venice, Carnevale is not as wild and is an excuse for little children to dress up in halloween costumes and throw confetti at strangers in the streets. The streets really were bustling. We had another fantastic lunch; this one by far outshined the Mantova lunch. I learned a word today to properly describe it: Squistito!

For some reason I like the sewer covers