An afternoon in the centre

An afternoon in Padua, waiting for a spring that doesn't arrive. The city of the "Saint without a name" and the "Meadow without grass". "Saint without a name" because for the people of Padua he is simply the "Saint": it's the basilica of the "Saint", going to mass at the "Saint" and the street of the "Saint"... it's always understood that the saint is St Anthony. "Meadow without grass" is this huge square, called Prato della Valle. It's one of the largest squares in Europe, at 88,620 sq m, with at its centre the elliptical island called Isola Memmia, surrounded by a little channel on whose banks there is a double ring of statues, and all around it the car park, the road and some of the most beautiful buildings of the city. Today it has become, especially on Sundays, the paradise of skaters, young and old going back and forth with wheels on their feet.

There would then also be the "Cafe without doors", namely the old Caffe Pedrocchi, because it was once open day and night and, given its structure, the open arcade, then without glass panes, was a sort of passage connected to the city.