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Day 8: Last full day in Padova

Not much in the way of pictures today. We had a lecture at 9:00 this morning about Venetian art. The lecturer was Penelope Brownell. Of interest was the Scuola and the art the Scuole sponsored.

After lunch Karen and I re-visited the Basilica of Saint Anthony.

At 3:00 we attended a lecture on Venetian music by Laura Papallo, our tour leader and a trained singer. She played tapes and demonstrated the various styles of singing while not actually singing herself. She's very glamorous and theatrical and the lecture was a hoot. At the end she played a tape; at its completion we realized that she was the singer on the tape. She even managed to get us to sing! Opera! The song was "Brindisi", the drinking song from Act I of Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata. We sang only the opening lines (Alfredo's part). Here are the lyrics and my attempt at translation.

The wine steward is Sergio. He added immeasurably to our enjoyment of Padua.

Brindisi

Libiamo, libiamo ne'lieti calici
che la belleza infiora.
E la fuggevol ora s'inebrii
a voluttà.
Libiamo ne'dolci fremiti
che suscita l'amore,
poiché quell'ochio al core
Omnipotente va.
Libiamo, amore fra i calici
più caldi baci avrà.

The Toast

Let's drink, drink from merry goblets
which bloom with beauty;
and the fleeting hour will be intoxicated
to rapture.
Let's drink in sweet shudders
which excite love,
because this eye, to the heart
all-powerfully goes.
Let's drink to love among the goblets
evermore; there will be hot kisses.

After the lecture we went looking for art books, particularly one about the Basilica, but we didn't find anything that we liked.

There was a celebratory dinner, with Prosecco and Pecorino (a regional hard cheese) before. Afterwards we serenaded the kitchen and wait staff with the Chorus we learned earlier. The hotel staff distributed medals for each of us. Very enjoyable time.

Spent the last part of the evening packing for tomorrow's departure to Venice.

At various times during the week, when we were in our room, I turned on Italian TV. I must say I wasn't impressed. Seemed as though every show was some sort of beauty pageant, with 30-50 identically bathing-suited dark-haired Barbie cutout figures - always grinning, overseen by an old Satyr as Master of Ceremonies. Not very exciting. We did catch part of an episode of "Bonanza" dubbed in Italian. Funny.

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