Bolger Family Travels: The Aptly-Named Stone Of Shame

After the long walk back to the main part of the city from St. Anthony's Basilica, we figured it was time for lunch, so we headed to the famed Caffe Pedrocchi.

Built 1831, the neoclassical building, served as a key planning location for the unification of Italy. We sat outside, watching Paduaians wandering by, including some boisterous students from the University of Padua, and enjoy the cafe lifestyle for a while.

I had three cicchetti (Italian tapas, especially popular in the northern regions of Italy), one each of octopus, meatballs in sauce, and Padua hen, which is like a hen, but from Padua. (I didn't see many pigeons, so who knows what I actually ate!). Carol had the saffron risotto, which is as tasty as it sounds.

From there we went to both Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza della Frutta. The two squares are divided by the 13th century Palazzo della Ragione, which turned out to be pretty cool.

We got to Piazza Frutta as the morning market was closing up. Between that and the cloudy sky, there wasn't much reason to hang out in the piazza.

So instead we went up the massive staircase on the Piazza Erbe side of Palazzo Ragione. The building has a massive upper level called il Salone (the great hall) and once held medieval law courts.

The loggia facing Piazza Erbe is quite grand, and has exquisite vaulting at the top, original painted in the 1300s (since touched up). Back then, Padua was one of the approximately 1,217 independent city-states in what became Italy. (All numbers in that last sentence are WAGs). Paduaianians were quite wealthy back in the day. (All made up words in that last sentence are made up).

Inside the upper floor (the bottom floor is a market with different shops and bars), there is the great hall -- 265 feet by 90 feet, with 333 frescoes painted in the 15th century. The frescoes depict the signs of the zodiac, labors of the months, characteristics of people based on their sign, the 12 apostles and various and sundry saints (Google "sundry saints" to see which ones).

(Editor: Stop. Just stop. Sundry saints? How gullible do you think people are? Writer: My readers are discerning enough to get that I'm joking.)

The hall originally had frescoes painted by Giotto, but they were ruined by fire in 1420.

The roof is hull-shaped, which, given that there are no columns to hold it up, is a remarkable feat for 1306. Between the size and age of the building (built in 1306), the place is quite ship-shape.

(Writer: Get it? Hull-shaped, ship-shape? Editor: It's not funny if you have to point the joke out.)

The hall also features one of the best named items I've ever seen -- the "Stone of Shame." Instead of throwing debtors in prison, or sometimes executing them, St. Anthony came up with this as an alternative. Debtors would sit upon the stone, give up their possessions, and denounce themselves like an ancient Maoist struggle session before being exiled from the city.

I wonder if the people watching would chant "It's all your fault!" at the debtors?

There is also a giant horse in the hall to reflect the Veneto region's own well-regarded horse breed.

There's also striking views from loggia of Piazza Erbe of arched buildings that line the square, and then it's a short walk to Piazza dei Signori, where we ended up having dinner because of weird, but happy, circumstances.

But we had to be somewhere, and have success, before 5pm or I would have completely botched our trip to Padua.