My turn to start - Mick here.

The last time we were in this neck of the woods we missed out on the Scrovegni Chapel, Giotto's great masterpiece. We decided that we'd take a break from our home in the Venetian lagoon for the day and head to Padova to see it this time.

If you want an experience of overblown bureaucracy, obey all the advice and book your visit on line. If ever there was an experience of all heat and no light this was it! It took a good half hour, including providing some external online booking site with everything but our shoe sizes to achieve what they said was impossible ie we booked about 16 hours ahead rather than the "obey at pain of death" 24 hours cautioned on the site.

This morning we took the vaporetto to the station - a trip of about the same length as the train trip to Padua. We were about to step on the Number 1 vaporetto- the one we wanted - when I noticed the sign said "Lido" even though the boat seemed to be pointed to Piazza Roma. Foolishly we obeyed the sign and let a perfectly good ferry go!

The train trip - which cost about half the ferry fare for about 20 times the distance was uneventful. We were immediately struck on arrival by the presence of buses and cars and trees and grass and ... all the bits whose absence makes Venice unique. We headed the 600 metres from the station to the Scrovegni to pick up our tickets armed with a bar code on my phone and my passport. When we got to the counter neither was necessary. Just name. Oh and would we like an earlier slot? Certamente! Bumped from 1240 to 1200 as someone had cancelled.

Entry is very much like the Last Supper in Milan. 20 minutes in a holding room while the air is adjusted and then into the remarkable Chapel. If you want the good oil, I can recommend the four short videos on Khan Academy (Who knew??).

Both conceptually and artistically this work marked a turning point in Italian art. Giotto broke from the prevailing Byzantine style and adopted a far more natural style. Scrovegni commissioned the Chapel by way of penance for his father's (and his own! ) sins of usury. Interesting theological point: can you buy forgiveness using the ill gotten gains of your sin? Ah well, even a great deal of purgatory would be worth this masterpiece. Just the one photo attached to the blog. If you are interested there's a great Wikipedia entry with good images.

We really only came to Padova for the Scrovegni so had a pot luck lunch at a very unprepossessing bar - a grand total of 7 euro for sandwiches and mineral water- and got our 4.30 euro tickets back to Venice on a train whose screens steadfastly told us we were heading for Padova the whole way to Venice. Must be the day for reverse signage. Oh - and tomorrow there will be one of the legendary transport scioperi- strikes- so we made a good choice to travel today.

We walked back from the station instead of the vaporetto this time, just looking in the windows of the tourist traps along the way.

Anne continues: first I must admit to a silly mistake I made with the lunch bill. We had roughly calculated it would be around 12E. I was given the bill and I handed over 14E assuming I would receive a small amount of change. I realised later that I had misread the time- 13.05- for the amount! The girl was very honest and made sure I received the correct change. The bill totalled only 6.90.

On our walk back from Venice station we stopped at the Church of Saint Mary of Nazareth of The Discalced Carmelites. The term refers to an order who do not wear shoes. I would not be able to be a member of that order- I wear bed socks in summer! In Venice it has been so cold, they must be tough. There was a Murano Glass Christmas Presepi (nativity) display and a very friendly man who welcomed us. A small musical group was rehearsing and sounded wonderful.

Back in our cosy flat where dinner will be the rest of the risi e bisi I cooked two nights ago.