3rd Gennaio 2015

In the morning I cycled to the shops to buy a few things. Then I came back for lunch. After lunch I walked back to near the shops to catch bus number 16. 3 minutes later, I disembarked and boarded number 5. 26 minutes later I stepped of at Padova Railway Station, or Stazione Ferroviaria.

It was a practise run, to see if I could get to the station. Next Friday I am catching the train to Venice and meeting Paolo and his host family.

So, I wrote down all the trains between 8 and 10 and asked the ticket office for any information. I was quite surprised that the queue was so short. They had an electronic machine for dispensing numbers, like at a delicatessen. "There were two options to choose: "Ticketing Information" and "Refunds and Complaints". I selected "Ticketing Information" and was given the same number that was on the board. There were six windows open, and only one was for "Ticketing Information". Yet there was no queue. There must have been a lot of complaints.

Afterwards, I came home. Then we set out for dinner. On the way, we bought a Pandoro and a Gran Cioccolato, a which is essentially a chocolate panettone, just in case.

The first course of dinner was seafood paella, and it was very seafoody. I struggled through it, and I have decided that the worst thing about non-fish seafood is the texture. I am glad there were no oysters.

Afterwards we had fried polenta, stewed fennel and potato chips. The fennel was magnificent, very liquorice-y.

Finally there was.... Panettone and Pandoro. I think I will read through my past posts and next time include a tally of the number of these cakes that I have eaten.