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Looking back at part of an unreported adventure, skirting around the Venice Lagoon to take in the "pocket" cities up the Po Valley between the Alps and the Apennines and beloved by Shakespeare and others. A few things have changed over the past decade but most of the culture and historic backdrop remains..  Above; Shan dominates the battlements in Cittadella. Our shortest day's journey in Campy on this trip so far took us in a westward arc from Cavallino-Treporti to Camping Serenissima in just under an hour, both being in the wider Metropolitan City of Venice. Set back amongst the trees from the Via Padana and a few steps from a bus stop we were well pleased. We'd arrived in the area of pocket cities without much of a plan other than to use our bicycles and buses as much as feasible. We'd hoped to do some research locally and it turned out that this worked in our favour. There was a substantial reception building at the site, manned by local people with some knowledge. We were staying for 4 full days and asked the question. Cittadella "If there was one place to visit using public transport from here, where would it be?" "Cittadella!" was the response, followed by some justifications, such as it being completely walled. We were then advised on how to get there, i.e. on the bus via Padua. The bus stop was almost at the gate to the campsite. Having to change at Padua turned out to be a good thing on the way back because we could be there by mid-afternoon. The bus back from Padua to Serenissima would be just less than an hour giving us 4-5 hours to explore the home of The Taming of the Shrew and some shenanigans involving Dante Alighieri and Giotto more than 700 years previously (C1303-06). The first bus arrived promptly at 7am and after a short stop at the Padova (Padua) Autostazione we were on our way to Cittadella. What a marvellous way to view the countryside and arrive fresh at one's destination, in our case before 9 am.  Above (l-r, top-bottom): Madame strides out from Camping Serenissima, pre- 07;00, to get the bus; Jose wouldn't have gone there, neither did we!; the space inside the wall is absolutely crammed but there's still room within the wall for spare/redundant chair storage [1]... any bets on whether these would ever be used again?; we've walked the inner parts and now it's time for a relaxed lunch in a garden outside the wall; the town/city, all crammed in - no space inside the wall for anything more; c'est moi, almost ready to complete the walk around the fortifications; a road runs through it with typical Italian shops, cafes, bars and restaurants; a rather dainty home just outside the wall and the town's moat. Cittadella was founded in the 13th century as a military outpost to defend Padua against neighbouring cities and must be one of the most unspoiled/in tact, medieval "cities[2]" anywhere. So much of its outer perimeter remains in tact and the small section that has had to be "restored" means that the trip is worth it on its own. It is also remarkable to view the town from above with most of the old buildings standing proud. It was pretty sinful arriving back in Padua at 15:15. For several reasons. Two of them being the lightning stampede around Cittadella itself and the combined bus journeys to and from the walled town. Although it could be argued that we'd seen a lot on our whirlwind visit. Padua/Padova The main reason, however, was that we'd completely underestimated the importance of Padua. A city that had been home to Dante and Giotto in the dawn of the 14th Century and was the backdrop for Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew almost three centuries later. Suffice to say that Padua could've benefitted from at least 3 nights in the town. Preferably staying in the town but, given our mode of transport, it would've been an acceptable hour's commute by bus from Camping Serenissima. A little time to plan the day on the way in and time for reflection on the homeward journey, perhaps. We did, however, manage to squeeze in a sniff of the city's evening passeggiata[3], so all was not lost. Perhaps if we'd stayed in the city for the three nights we might've acquired the odd nodding acquaintance. There is a lot to be drawn from the plaque located in Piazza Antenore, opposite the ancient tomb of Antenor, the mythical founder of Padua, depicted below. I have no idea when the plaque was erected but translating it is a bit of a challenge without the level of punctuation we've become accustomed to. I'll have to have a go and happily welcome any corrections from readers: "FACTIONS AND REVENGES DREW DANTE HERE IN 1306. GIOTTO HAD A LESS HARSH EXILE". I feel that the plaque in the picture below has more subtleties that my basic Italian fails to comprehend. There is an article[4] that sheds some light but no direct translation. No wonder my fellow lovers of Italy turn their wiles to scholarship. All contributions from Italian scholars (especially Signor Tibone) gratefully received, either directly or as comments on this blog. Above (l-r, top-bottom): The plaque on the Palazzo Romanin Jacur mentioned in the main text; a grand medieval building housing an al fresco bar opposite Padua cathedral; typical Italian transport in confines of its ancient cities; the outdoor market is winding down in the Piazza delle Erbe outside the Ragione Palace; but the food market within continues to deliver exotic meats and cheeses (2); sharing a smoke by the Tomb of Antenor; transport and architecture of many shapes and sizes; Shan leading the Padua passeggiata; back side of Basilica St Anthony; return to the Piazza delle Erbe and the Bar Degli Osei for a final drink and snack before getting the bus back to our campsite; we caught sight of Loggia Cornaro while we whizzed past to the bus stop. And then we turn to the setting of the Taming of the Shrew and the question as to whether Will ever waggled his dagger in Padua? It seems he might have spent time in Verona (with two gentlemen or perhaps stalking Romeo and/or Juliet) or Venice (with a merchant)? If, like me, one is always drawn off on tangents ... [5]/[14] An observant reader will notice that just about everything we saw in Padua was from the exterior. The danger of dedicating too little time to each pocket city on our Odyssey. This one was crass in the extreme, having given over the morning to Cittadella. We consoled ourselves with the promise to each other that we'd return ... not going to happen for me now in my condition but I do hope Shan will get a chance some time in the future, perhaps with Kinks (her wonderful sister, Kerry)? The Brenta Canal Legend has it that the construction of Villa Foscari in the mid-16th century started a craze for people who could afford it to build ostentatious villas of their own along the Naviglio (Canal) del Brenta in the general direction of Padova/Padua. Having been out on our bikes to the edge of the Venice Lagoon, a mere 25 minutes from Camping Serenissima, we stumbled on the first villa in our set at a place creepily-named Malcontenta. We are talking about the Villa Foscari. It turns out to have been designed by Andrea Palladio (more of him later) and legends have it that "Malcontenta" refers to the spouse of one of the Foscaris who was locked up in the house because she allegedly did not live up to her conjugal duty[6]. If that's true, it seems a little harsh that the name Malcontenta has been conferred on the local village, perhaps for the past 5 centuries? We were intrigued enough to plan our next day around cycling in the opposite direction from our campsite (i.e. West towards Padua) and drool over the villas that inhabited the canal-side. The Foscari and a few others are in the pictures below. Above (l-r, top-bottom): Villa Foscari, also known as La Malcontenta; Villa Moscheni a Mira; Villa Widmann; access to canal from the Villa (perhaps sometimes an alternative to a bus stop); 17th century Villa Valmarana; the local trattoria in central Mira in 2016 (my steed parked outside in this pic). The Villa Foscari, as mentioned above, appears to have been the trend-setting first aristocratic homestead built alongside the Naviglio. The following are a couple of headlines about the place, which is covered more comprehensively in Wikipedia[7]:
Sadly the charming traditional trattoria in central Mira appears, in recent Google pics, to have become derelict. Many of the villas in the Veneto, including some of those along the Brenta canal, were also designed by Palladio. In fact too many to itemise them here before moving on to Signor Andrea's home town in Vicenza that is awash with them. We won't even attempt to catalogue designs attributed to our visionary hero during the intervening four centuries and beyond[8].. Vicenza We had been able to use the excellent bus network to visit Cittadella and Padua but Vicenza was also high on our list for convenience with a car park on the outskirts sporting a free bus into the centre. Campy rested for a couple of nights while we investigated the home of Palladian architecture and enjoyed the pride of the local passengers including the big smiles directing us when to disembark for the "Centro Storico[9]".  Above (l-r, top-bottom): Centro Storico - Piazza del Signori - with some bits of Palladian architecture scattered around; it would be incomplete not to include a hallmark of Northern Italy, the vaulted ceiling; covered sidewalks are also a frequently welcome feature with the sudden rain showers; exterior courtyard of the Teatro Olimpico; typical street in Vicenza; not sure why it deserved a statue but the great man did visit Vicenza (maybe just for a day) in August 1887; Palladio, however, had a great influence on the city's and, eventually, the world's architecture; the Loggia Valmarana located within the Giardini Salvi (Salvi Gardens) in Vicenza; medieval Torre del Girone (Tower of the Girone) Basilica Palladiana beneath darkening skies; close up of the Loggia Valmarana; la Meneghina Vicenza (cafe and restaurant); What appears to be Vicenza's city centre is a handsome square with a lot of Palladian architecture and, as with many worldwide historical cities, the interesting bits tend to radiate out from there. And so it was that we spent a busy day in the back lanes before returning to one of the Piazza del Signori's arteries, Contra Delle Gazzolle, home of La Meneghina Vicenza. This was one of the finest bars we'd visited in a lifetime of la dolce vita, treating ourselves to the niceties of the places to which we'd travelled - even the downpour that had been threatening failed to dampen our spirits with the sturdy umbrella and welcoming staff. Mantua/Mantova Mantua occurs on a bend on the River Mincio on its route from Lake Garda to the River Po[10]. It is on the border of Lombardy and Veneto and, in the 12th century, the elbow was widened into three lakes (Maggiore, Mezzo and Inferiore) to form part of its defence system. A 4th lake, Pajolo, incorporated a swamp and at one stage completed the defence system, but dried up in the 18th century. In 2016 when Shan and I were there, the city was designated as the "Italian Capital of Culture". In more recent years it has received many accolades for aspects such as gastronomy. We can only attest to it being an engaging city. We had too little time to enjoy the gastronomy partially because, just about wherever one goes in Italy and orders a drink, it is accompanied by pretty sumptuous snacks gratis. These also often become more sumptuous the longer one lingers to continue drinking. Above (l-r, top-bottom): the campervan park was close to the centre of the city with a great view of a little boat harbour on the edge of Lago Inferiore; this view spans Piazza delle Erbe[11], featuring the Palazzo della Ragione and its attached Torre dell'Orologio (Clock Tower); the Basilica of Sant'Andrea [12] whose construction, designed by the renowned architect Leon Battista Alberti, began in 1472 and needed many pics to show some of its size and aspects (4); Shan in a doorway in the basilica; forget Giro conquering bikes of the likes of carbon-framed Bianchis, this typified the everyday cycles we came across, across the Po Plain; it seemed that the Lago Mezzo didn't quite provide the defence required for the Castello di San Giorgio the moated castle located in Mantua (2); order a beer and it comes with sumptuous free snacks. We concluded our day in Mantua with beer, wine and hearty snacks and pondered the sheer mass of the Basilica of Sant'Andrea, which is pictured broken up into sections above. It is a Roman Catholic co-cathedral and minor basilica in Mantua. It is one of the major works of 15th-century Renaissance architecture in Northern Italy and would've taken a couple of days viewing to do it justice on its own. Over our evening victuals we concluded that we'd probably bitten off more than we could chew for our short perambulation East of Milan. These places are pocket CITIES rather than POCKET cities and each one could have done with at least 2-3 days to get a proper feeling for the area. Parma We still had Parma on our agenda and any complacence we might have had about the place was almost definitely biased. We arrived ithere to a fairly sterile campsite out on the ring road. To be frank we had tourist flu. We felt we had to do it so we cycled the 4.6km into the city ... Maybe another time ... we'd had such a sped-up urban tour so far and really just needed a bit of peace and quiet. Sorry Parma! Above (l-r): The Parma Baptistery, for example, is considered to be among the most important Medieval monuments[13] in Europe; this image shows a narrow, cobblestone street in Parma, specifically highlighting the area near the Palazzo Dalla Rosa Prati; this photograph depicts a street scene in the historic centre of Parma, featuring the iconic bell tower of the Parma Cathedral. Other colourful parts of the city were beguiling but we were pining for the open countryside again. We didn't even consume any Parma Ham or Parmesan, we were that pocket city'd out ... Coming next
Mountains (not Alps), sea and more mountains (Alps): Epic "Campy" trip from Oxfordshire to Venice and back #3 ... [Endnotes]:
4 Comments
Sonja
21/2/2026 11:39:16 am
Mark oh Mark! What wonderful photos and your descriptions/narratives are delightful giving one a real appetite to visit or re-visit those marvellous ‘pocket’ cities. We have been to one or two of them as we adore Italy. We mainly went to Tuscany. The interesting thing is that in April/May we are hoping to visit Lake Garda and Verona and then on to Vienna. It’s been a dream of mine for years. So perhaps there may be time to ‘pop’ into one of your pocket cities mentioned in your glorious travelogue of Roaminations. Please carry on as we all want more!
Rob Melville
21/2/2026 01:34:30 pm
Great trip! Much to see and learn. You have clearly packed a lot in but there is always too little time to do it justice. We were in Tuscany trying to do a more limited tour, but the challenge of fellow tourists can take the edge of it.
Federico Tibone
23/2/2026 08:20:47 am
"Dai Carrara da Giotto ebbe men duro esilio" on the plaque is, I believe, a poetic way to say that Dante's exile in Padua was made less harsh by the support he received from the Da Carrara family and by the presence of Giotto in town. Leave a Reply. |
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