Europe 2008: Padova, Italy

From Milan, we took a two hour train ride to Padova (or Padua). This is where we met up with Lichar for his conference. He had flown into Venice and taken a bus to this relatively small town and we met up at the train station.

After arriving and finding each other (thank goodness for cell phones!) we checked into the hotel and went for a bite to eat....


...and then of course we had to teach Lichar our tradition of gelato every day! :) He approved.


After eating we walked around the city just seeing the sights. This is the Basilica di Sant'Antonio da Padova, or locally Il Santo.


The side of the church was impressive with so many domes.


From the front, it was a little bit more plain.


Of course after all that walking we needed another snack...



This is the Prato della Valle. It is a 90,000 square meter elliptical plaza, the largest in Italy and one of the largest in Europe. There was water surrounding the area, with grass, trees and a large fountain in the middle. It was always a happening place. By day people lounging in the sun, reading or walking along and by night the area surrounding was full of people eating and visiting.


Colorful houses across the street from the Prato della Valle.


Here is the proof that Lichar actually worked. :) Here he is with Melinda and Kyle making some final edits on their presentations. His poster came in second out of the 40 that were there!!


That night we went to eat with Melinda (his advisor), her family, and a few co-workers. Lichar was very excited that they have cheese-less pizza on the menu. Kyle, one of his co-workers, doesn't like cheese either and told Lichar about his find.


Our second day in Padova, Lichar was busy all day at his conference, so Deana and I took a day trip to Verona (pictures of that coming up next).

Our last day in Padova, Lichar had a few meetings to attend. Deana went and saw a few more sights in Padova, but I wasn't feeling well, so I stayed at the hotel and rested for a while. Around noon we all met up at the hotel and checked out.

Deana visited this Botanic garden, I thought some of the pictures were beautiful, so thought I'd include them. It dates back to 1545 and is regarded as the most ancient university garden in the world. It was originally devoted to medicinal plants, but now has thousands of species.

Before leaving for Venice, we had dinner with Bart. Bart is from Holland but spent a year in Houston working at Lichar's lab. He currently is back in Holland, but he was able to attend the conference also--it was good to see him and catch up.
Bart and Deana at lunch.


Here are more pictures of Padova. (no captions on this one)