What a fabulous surprise of a city Padova is, calm, together, friendly, beautiful and quintessentially italian. Aesthetically beautiful like Bologna with its porticos and Basilicas but lacking the frenetic exhausting nature of larger Italian cities. Tourists may well head straight to Venice 40km away but Padova, is just, well, so likable. We had a leisurely 70km ride from Soave, through dozens of ghost towns, so very vacant it was starting to freak me out. We left in the middle of a thunder storm (smarter decisions have been made) and finished in sunshine in time to watch Cadel win the tour. Perfect timing.