|
Post by fumobici on May 23, 2016 20:42:45 GMT
So as alluded to in my recent Venice thread, I was quite keen to see Padua's Saturday market as it was recommended to me. The first two are just photos I took to help find my way back to the train station. Pretty little church nevertheless. Below is il Palazzo della Ragione, which is an important building in Padua and had a room upstairs, which I was told, for hundreds of years was the largest in Europe without columns. That room was roped off and couldn't be visited when I got there, a minor disappointment. However the ground floor along with two adjacent piazze house an impressive market. Oh yeah, it was raining. Alot. General merchandise is situated north of the palazzo in Piazza della Frutta- It really was a big soggy mess and there weren't many braving it to shop outside. Inside the Palazzo della Ragione however we were packed in like sardines to gawk at the wares and get some shopping in. A briefly venture into the Piazza delle Erbe for a desultory tour of the produce. The produce is superb, perhaps better than I could find probably than on the entire West coast of the US. But again, the weather is kind of spoiling it all. I went back inside. This is a serious food market although not very vegan friendly (although there was tone vegan vendor, the one with the vegan "sushi" and the colorful chickpea balls). Meats that are literally unobtainable outside the area and a pretty jawdropping assortment of cheeses, many local to Veneto. I bought a bag full of goat cheeses, they were excellent, the capra di blu was my favorite. I don't think I had ever had a goat milk blue before. I passed on the raw horse meat salad (labelled "Straccetti" in the photos). There were a couple of dedicated horse meat butchers there. You can easily spot the horse meat by the golden color of the fat. As nice as the market is and in spite of the continuing rain I need to get out and tour the little city a bit. The city's Duomo frankly isn't a spectacular sight but it's *big*. The feature church in Padua is the Basilica S. Antonio some ten blocks away which I didn't visit. These flowers on the Duomo's portone were real. I take a couple of quick shots of the well known Caffe Pedrocchi on my way back to the station... ...and the short train ride back to Venice.
|
|
|
Post by htmb on May 23, 2016 21:27:40 GMT
This is a real feast for the eyes. All the photos are quite interesting, but the one with the butcher surrounded by all his wares really stands out.
Too bad about the nasty weather, but it looks like you really made the best of it.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on May 24, 2016 4:59:17 GMT
One thing that is nice about the rainy day reports here is that they show cities that are only shown on sunny days in guidebooks and television travelogues. Rain on cobblestones has always looked good, and it also gets most of the crowds off the street. It appears that northern Italian street markets look extremely similar to northern French street markets with very similar products but always a few surprises like the coloured chickpea balls. They look like the sort of product that most of us would find fun to try but would throw away after one bite. It's always fun to spot differences, such as the much higher and steeper slant of the produce displays compared to France. Horsemeat is clearly much more popular in Padua than in Paris. All of our horse butchers have disappeared over the last 30 years and you can basically only find horsemeat in a very tiny section in certain supermarkets. The architecture of the city is wonderful. (Naturally I know we are seeing the historical centre, as I suspect that the outer areas look as uninteresting and/or grim as just about anywhere.)
|
|
|
Post by bjd on May 24, 2016 5:45:17 GMT
There is still one small horsemeat butcher at the market where I live, although I suspect he will not be replaced once he retires.
Fumo, you didn't have time to visit the Scrovegni Chapel with the Giotto frescoes? That's the main tourist draw of Padua. There is also the university where Galileo was a teacher. I admit I don't remember much else about Padua, except that it was a pleasant place.
|
|
|
Post by mossie on May 24, 2016 6:58:20 GMT
You are kidding us, Italy is that boot in the middle of the perpetually blue Meditterannean Sea and everlasting blue sky. How dare you let it rain.
Some wonderful photos, such a pity it had to rain when,no doubt, your time was limited. I particularly liked the cats in the street art, but everything was a delight. Thankyou.
|
|
|
Post by questa on May 24, 2016 9:25:56 GMT
More wonderful shots, thanks for braving the elements. I specially like the woman in the red apron's shop with the brightly coloured price tickets. [#8 after your 'desultory tour of the produce' comment]
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on May 24, 2016 11:45:09 GMT
There is quite a bit of rain in Northeastern Italy and it gets very muggy in the summer.
I did like the looks of the vegetable sushi and above all the goat cheeses. Did we see part of the famous university?
There is a boucherie chevaline at Marché Jean-Talon near me, but they now sell other meats as well; there is usually at least some ground horse and a horse steak or two in supermarkets here. Bison has become very popular as a lower-fat red meat, but it remains more expensive than horse or beef.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on May 24, 2016 15:40:07 GMT
This is a treat, Fumobici! From what you said in your Venice thread, I take it Padua is not too far away. But what a difference -- a completely different feel and look to the two towns. You got great pictures despite the rain.
The market is rather surprising, not so much in that everything is so beautiful, but in that some of the produce is so big! The asparagus, the strawberries, the squash flowers, even some of the bananas -- all perfect & huge. The amount of horsemeat & its leanness also surprised me. When I saw the Sicilian swordfish, I went & looked at my Palermo thread. Swordfish in a market there was 20 euros, so it doubled in price on its journey north. All of the prepared foods looks tempting. What did you buy?
In the last picture of the OP, what the heck is that figure beneath the bewigged king? I have scrutinized it, but can't figure it out.
|
|
|
Post by fumobici on May 24, 2016 15:42:26 GMT
One thing that is nice about the rainy day reports here is that they show cities that are only shown on sunny days in guidebooks and television travelogues. Rain on cobblestones has always looked good, and it also gets most of the crowds off the street. It appears that northern Italian street markets look extremely similar to northern French street markets with very similar products but always a few surprises like the coloured chickpea balls. They look like the sort of product that most of us would find fun to try but would throw away after one bite. It's always fun to spot differences, such as the much higher and steeper slant of the produce displays compared to France. Horsemeat is clearly much more popular in Padua than in Paris. All of our horse butchers have disappeared over the last 30 years and you can basically only find horsemeat in a very tiny section in certain supermarkets. The architecture of the city is wonderful. (Naturally I know we are seeing the historical centre, as I suspect that the outer areas look as uninteresting and/or grim as just about anywhere.) Firstly, thank you to everyone that took the time to write a reply. I really appreciate it. Horsemeat is pretty rare in Italy too, I was surprised to see it so prominently on display at this market. Some of the prepared meats and cheeses I saw here are similar to what you might find in France or further South in Italy, but are regional and stuff I'd certainly never seen at any market outside Veneto. And yes, once out of the centro storico, Padua gets architecturally uninteresting pretty quickly, something very typical of old cities in the flatlands of Italy between the Alps and the Apenines. With nothing to geographically contain them these cities tend to sprawl into districts full of grimy industrial developments and unattractive concrete apartment buildings. Where cities in Italy have resisted this seem to be where the outward growth of the city is constrained by geographical/topological factors where cities were sited on hilltops or in small valleys where there just is no readily developable land to sprawl into. In regions with mountainous terrain, you'll see cities and towns that have never had this sprawling growth and probably look little different than they did centuries ago.
|
|
|
Post by fumobici on May 24, 2016 15:48:58 GMT
There is still one small horsemeat butcher at the market where I live, although I suspect he will not be replaced once he retires. Fumo, you didn't have time to visit the Scrovegni Chapel with the Giotto frescoes? That's the main tourist draw of Padua. There is also the university where Galileo was a teacher. I admit I don't remember much else about Padua, except that it was a pleasant place. I walked right by the Scrovegni Chapel on my way back to the train station, but advance reservations are necessary and this trip to Padua was literally a spur of the moment thing. There is an interesting airlock thing outside the chapel people are sent into before they are allowed inside, something to do with humidity and preservation. I would really have loved to see the frescoes, but it wasn't in the cards for this visit. I'd really like to pay Padua another visit sometime when the weather is better.
|
|
|
Post by fumobici on May 24, 2016 15:56:40 GMT
This is a treat, Fumobici! From what you said in your Venice thread, I take it Padua is not too far away. But what a difference -- a completely different feel and look to the two towns. You got great pictures despite the rain. The market is rather surprising, not so much in that everything is so beautiful, but in that some of the produce is so big! The asparagus, the strawberries, the squash flowers, even some of the bananas -- all perfect & huge. The amount of horsemeat & its leanness also surprised me. When I saw the Sicilian swordfish, I went & looked at my Palermo thread. Swordfish in a market there was 20 euros, so it doubled in price on its journey north. All of the prepared foods looks tempting. What did you buy? In the last picture of the OP, what the heck is that figure beneath the bewigged king? I have scrutinized it, but can't figure it out. Padua is about 15 minutes by train from Venice, so very nearby. I bought some assorted goat cheeses to take to my family's house in Tuscany and for lunch just went to a nearby bar and had a beautiful bresaola sandwich, a salad and a beer. Getting an excellent, cheap lunch is almost never a problem in Italy. <edit> Sorry, no idea who any of the people or things are on that plaque. I just found it pretty!
|
|
|
Post by tod2 on May 25, 2016 6:48:20 GMT
I cant give enough praise for this fantastic essay on Venice and surrounds. It is going to be extremely useful to anyone planning a trip there.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on May 13, 2019 20:49:54 GMT
^ ^ ^ What she said! ^ ^ ^
|
|