Woke up shortly after six, had breakfast, and set out to catch the vaporetto to the station in Venice in plenty of time. Caught the 8:50 train to Padova that I had pre-booked. Only took 25 minutes. The ease of putting my little suitcase between the seats is a reminder of why packing light is so great. Left my bag at the baggage office but couldn't find the info desk at the Padova station, so I walked to the scrovegni chapel ticket office to get my ticket for 11:15 and my Padova card. Walked a few more min to the center sand scoped out the enormous market that takes up the ground floor of a palace and two surrounding squares. Gorgeous.
Wandered a bit, got a cappuccino at the famous cafe pedrocchi and made it back to the chapel. They only let 25 people in at a time. You have to get there early, then at your scheduled time you sit in a climate controlled room and watch a 15 min video about the chapel then you are transferred into the chapel, which is also climate controlled. The video explained that destruction of surrounding buildings, removal of plaster, etc. shame that so much damage has been caused. You get 15 min in the chapel. I brought my iPad in to read Rick Steves's description and snuck a few surreptitious pictures off it. Not the best quality but better than nothing. No photo would do this chapel justice. Though not as well preserved, it rivals the Sistine chapel and because the number of people are limited you enjoy it more. 
Gorgeous!!
Walked down to the enormous basilica of st. Anthony, and wandered around for a while. Very beautiful. I'll never understand the tradition of displaying saints' body parts, though. Like, why st. Anthony's tongue??
Took the tram back up to the center and got a slice of pizza for lunch. The guy tried to speak English to me and I kept replying in Italian and he finally relented. He asked me if there were a lot of somethings in LA and I'm not sure what but he was laughing so I just said no.
Went back to cafe pedrocchi and got a marocchino, which was delicious but I'm not exactly sure what it was (it's a coffee drink) and a tiramisu that was delicious. Went into the duomo baptistery and the palace above the market before taking the tram back to the station to give myself plenty of time to collect my bag and find the train platform.
And in less than 45 min I'll be in Verona. Yay fast trains.
10:45pm - wow long day. Arrived in Verona at about 4:30pm and took a taxi to the B&B. Alessandro, the owner, greeted me warmly and showed me some stuff on the map. He asked me if a traditional Italian breakfast (aka sweets) was OK or if I wanted something else. I said I would be a bad B&B owner because I would only offer guests the traditional food. He specifically mentioned German and English tourists expect and request salty things for breakfast. He accommodates them because he wants good reviews on TripAdvisor. So sad.
Anyway, went around and took a walk - very impressed how close the B&B is to everything - there are two main squares in Verona and it is about halfway in between. Also the room is big, clean, and modern. Wandered around for about an hour, came back and rested for a few, then went out to dinner. Ended up at Taverna via Stelle, which was on my list, because they had many things I wanted to try. I had their special "spicy spaghetti" that reminded me of an Amatriciana dish you might find in Rome, interestingly enough. And I had polenta, a specialty of the region, with a local salami on top. Way too much food but worth the small splurge. When people say eating in Italy is so expensive I ask where in the US you would find two courses of top-quality homemade food, a glass of wine, a bottle of fancy water, a nice bread basket, including tax AND tip, for about $30 in a good restaurant???? Anyway this place was adorable and the food was delicious. I skipped a gelato because I had my moro pastry from Venice.
Wandered around again - the main streets here are all pedestrianized so they are full of people doing their evening strolls all dressed up, which is always much fun to partake in. Took some pictures at night in the squares and caught some kind of wedding celebration where people were singing in the streets.
Came back to the B&B and did a bit of laundry.
Unfortunately, the internet connection here is just as weak so I do not know when I'll get my pictures up and the rest of the videos :( Soon I hope!
Walking total today: 29,134 steps and 11.59 miles. Yikes! Not sure how the train rides affected that, though. I don't feel like I walked that much today...
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