Padua is 25 minutes from Venice by train and the location of a university that was home to Copernicus, Dante, Galileo and Petrarch.
Founded in 1222, it is notable for breaking from the tradition of curricula dictated by the Church and awarding the first university degree to a woman - ever.
We went to Padua to see the Scrovegni Chapel, completely decorated by Giotto and his assistants from 1303 - 1305. This work is considered by many to be the beginning of modern art as Europe was breaking out of the Middle Ages.
Reginald Scrovegni was a money lender at a time when the Church forbade high interest rates. When he died the Church denied him a Christian burial. He was even mentioned in Dante's Inferno as inhabiting one of the levels of Hell.
His son Enrico used his inheritance to build the chapel hoping to buy forgiveness for his father's sins.
Under a blue starry sky vault, Giotto tells the whole story - from Mary's birth through Pentecost. And on the end wall, a massive Last Judgment.
Giotto's breakthrough was abandoning stylized representation and portraying real people with real emotions, lighting and perspective.
Then a quick ride back to Venice on the train.
Founded in 1222, it is notable for breaking from the tradition of curricula dictated by the Church and awarding the first university degree to a woman - ever.
We went to Padua to see the Scrovegni Chapel, completely decorated by Giotto and his assistants from 1303 - 1305. This work is considered by many to be the beginning of modern art as Europe was breaking out of the Middle Ages.
Reginald Scrovegni was a money lender at a time when the Church forbade high interest rates. When he died the Church denied him a Christian burial. He was even mentioned in Dante's Inferno as inhabiting one of the levels of Hell.
His son Enrico used his inheritance to build the chapel hoping to buy forgiveness for his father's sins.
Under a blue starry sky vault, Giotto tells the whole story - from Mary's birth through Pentecost. And on the end wall, a massive Last Judgment.
Giotto's breakthrough was abandoning stylized representation and portraying real people with real emotions, lighting and perspective.
Then a quick ride back to Venice on the train.
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