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Our first full day in Padua started disastrously. To make matters worse, the disaster was of our own making: we started the morning with a needless argument. Instead of going to Venice, as we planned to do, Nita returned to our hotel and Andre grimly bought himself a Padua card, in a desperate attempt to have fun on his own. One hour later, we kissed and made up. Because our carefully prepared timetable was no longer valid, we decided to postpone our trip to Venice by one day and explore Padua instead. Unlike the good people of Graz, who take care of their city as it were made of China, the average Padovano takes his historical heritage for granted. The old city of Padua, which was one of Europe's largest cities for over a 1000 years, is in nowadays in bad shape. It is criss-crossed by buses that drive at ferocious speed, its streets are dirty and stink, the handsome facades of its buildings disfigured by billboards. That having said, the city is home to one of the most beautiful things that Andre has ever seen with his own eyes. Hundreds of years ago, money lending was considered evil. At the same time, it was highly profitable. After having made a lot of money in the financial sector, Enrico Scrovegni started to feel a little uneasy about his afterlife, and decided to have a chapel built, dedicated to Saint Mary of Charity (yes, we looked up this last bit). To decorate the interior of the chapel, he hired to most renowned painter of his time: Giotto. The walls of the chapel contain frescoes depicting scenes of the life of Jesus, Mary and the apostles - biblical stories told in a series of pictures, comic-book style. The ceiling is a starry sky. Everywhere you look in the chapel, above and beside you, are paintings and statues of uncanny beauty. Dante wrote about Giotto's genius. He also placed Scrovegni in the hell of his Divina Commedia. Already then, money couldn't buy you love.
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