Padua and the Frescoes That Started the Renaissance

Padua and the Frescoes That Started the Renaissance

30 minutes by regional train. The Scrovegni Chapel — small, unassuming building containing the most important fresco cycle in Western art. Giotto, 1303-1305. 38 scenes. Their use of perspective, emotion, and naturalistic space is considered the beginning of the Renaissance, seventy years before Brunelleschi.

25 visitors at a time, 15-minute viewings. The intimacy is appropriate — the frescoes surround you. The blue ceiling with gold stars arches overhead like a sky Giotto designed to replace the one outside. Book online two weeks ahead. The Padua city center around Piazza delle Erbe and the Basilica of Sant'Antonio is worth the afternoon. Train from Venice Santa Lucia, 25 minutes, runs every 15 minutes.