Trenitalia had a different plan. The train left Padua on time, the sky was blue, there were plenty of seats available and plenty of time to make the connection in Mestre. Then the wheels fell off. The train from Mestre to Treviso didn't arrive for some reason unknown to us, and when a train destined for Treviso did arrive, it sat there not going anywhere until a train from some other destination arrived, disgorging hoardes of people, most of whom jumped on our train, and one minute later we left for Treviso, finally arriving at around 11:30 am.
After following some misdirections from a Macedonian waiter, delivered in German, we finally found the Informazione Touristiche and secured ourselves a mappa, went back to the Macedonian waiter and rewarded him by ordering coffee and brioche and then headed into the depths of the town only to discover that it was now lunchtime. Lunchtime in Italy can last from about 12:30 to 4:00 pm depending entirely on the hours which individual shopkeepers and businesses choose to operate within - the churches and Duomo were listed as having a respectful lunch break from 12:30 until 3:30 pm, the small shops from 1:00 until 4:00 pm but the market stallholders were all gone by 1:00 o'clock and they weren't coming back at all. The cafes, bars and restaurants stay open and make a killing.
So, what to do? Have lunch of course, and visit the natural attractions and historical buildings that don't require a staff member to attend to you or sell you a ticket of some kind. That's when you discover that almost every noteworthy building or historical sight is covered in scaffolding and sailcloth to indicate that restorations are underway. Mind you, not a single workman has been sighted so far.
So, as the clock clicked slowly around to 3:00 o'clock we devised a new plan - visit Chiese dei San Francesco, the Duomo, take in the shops on Via Calmaggiore and Piazza dei Signori and make a slow arc back to the station for the return trip to Padua. All is well.
Treviso is a small city (pop. 82,000) just north of Venice, and if the quality of the shops and the shopping can be used as a guide, it is a more affluent area than some others we have seen. The piazzas, streets and laneways, public spaces and buildings are all very beautiful, and it's a real shame that it is closed for so much of the time every day. Such is life in Italy.
We arrived back at the station in time for our train to Mestre, and then on to Padua. Only now we discover that there is a Trenitalia strike and no trains will run until after 5:00 o'clock, after which time, the tracks will be cleared and we will be on our way, first train out of the station. How do we know this? The conductor has boarded our train after we had sat motionless (the train, not us) for about 20 minutes at the station, made the announcement and made to leave. Deb springs into action and asks him to please repeat what he has just said in English. "Englese? No problema," he laughs, turning to a passenger sitting nearby and with just a shrug and upturned palms is clearly asking if the other guy can help out, which thankfully he does.
We finally get to Mestre, and it's a zoo. There are thousands of passengers, all stranded and all waiting for a train to somewhere, and nothing is either coming or going.
Needless to say, we arrived home very late, with the fairly simple plan for the day having not quite worked out.
D2
That is a specific of traveling in Italy, you don't need to make plans :) Stroll around, get lost, admire the streets, this is the best way to understand it.
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