Between One Drop and the Next

In this rainy late Spring (after the rainy mid-Spring and the rainy early Spring...) you can dream up all the trips and outings you like, but the only sure thing is that it rains and if you're unlucky it rains like crazy too. Obviously, even though we knew this, we try to organise a nice weekend in Veneto and, making Padua our base, we enthusiastically mark on the Atlas the places we would have visited over the weekend. The sun only peeked out on Sunday and we dashed into the centre to enjoy the magnificent Venetian city, hoping the weather would give us a few hours of respite. Padua is wonderful, as usual. The Basilica of Santa Giustina is imposing in its linearity, while the antique market at Prato della Valle is a perfect place to browse among old things...(sorry) Antique things.

What really astonished us, though, was the Basilica of Sant'Antonio, which displayed all the multi-ethnic and multi-faith character that distinguishes it. Without exaggerating, I think that on the 15th the entire Ethiopian-Eritrean Coptic community of Italy was in the Basilica. It's exciting the way this community literally lives out its religiosity, which for them means not only praying and singing but also using the cloister spaces of the Basilica to eat and be together. And amid all this splendid humanity there couldn't be missing the Ethiopian-Brescian lady who offered us a nice plate of 'ngera, which we devoured bare-handed like the good Italians we are.