I would never suggest that people don't enjoy the Veneto, especially Venice, Verona for music in the summer (not in winter), the Giotto's in Padua, and a pilgrimage to the Basilica in Padua.

But there should be known that there is a difference between touristic and real. Click on the 15 pictures of Padua that just came out in the daily crime sheet in the paper. Just keep clicking on the arrows to see them all.

http://corrieredelveneto.corriere.it...81156.shtml#14

Sure, they keep it nice down at the Basilica of San Anthony of Padua, but if you are taking the train there from Venice or anyone else, better get back on the train before dark. Same if you are staying in a hotel, don't walk back home at night. Probably the only city I'd say that about, including Palermo.

It's an OK day trip but Padova, Vicenza, Verona, are tourist side trips best to be breezed through if one wants to know the Veneto, unless of course you are going to a musical event in Verona, not on a 10 day car trip. They are not what makes Veneto special.

Padova just sent police reinforcements to Trieste to help them with their crime there, which is even higher despite the splurge in robberies, rapes, and drug crimes here recently. It was just in the paper that in Padova long time immigrants just started their own neighborhood watch patrols like the Guardian Angels in New York City in the 1980's, because recent immigrants are causing so much crime that they are giving the long time immigrants a bad name. And this is after the Padova government basically constructed a wall to enclose immigrant neighborhoods of Padova not too long ago because of the violence and prostitution, similar to the way Texas walled off parts of the Mexican Border.

I'm not saying people shouldn't do pilgrimage to Saint Anthony, see the Giotto's, and the UNESCO world heritage botanical garden in Padua, but this is real Italy, not a guided tour.

Padova is a huge, industrial city, with factory after factory, which is what a lot of what the Veneto did during the boom of the 80's, which is now not doing well with the "crisis, and many of the factories are abandoned." Almost every city in Italy has beautiful areas, and Padova is no exception, but I wouldn't say that it fulfills peoples' images of beautiful, sunny Italy. It's is extremely industrial with factory after factory. It is one of the most industrialized cities in all of Italy. If you just want to check off sites on a list, that's one approach. I prefer to go to Italy and experience it's beautiful, native parts, but to each his/her own

Downtown Padova
http://www.padova24ore.it/images/sto...dustriale2.jpg

Vicenza was the most bombarded city of the Veneto during WW II. Much of it was basically leveled. Like Padua, it's now a huge industrial city of over a quarter of a million people. Nearly 100,000 of its citizens live abroad. It's surrounded by massive industrial areas. Two of its main features are the huge U.S. Army base, Air Force Base, and a huge NATO Base. With so much foreign presence, english is almost the lingua franca.

Vicenza is a world heritage site because it has villas built by Palladio. Since most of the villas he built are not actually in Vicenza, they changed the name to Vicenza and Palladian Villas of the Veneto, but you don't have to be in industrial Vicenza to see them. Again, as in most of Italy, there are beautiful squares in Vicenza. But if you are doing a once in a lifetime Veneto trip, I hardly think choosing a city holds a USA army base should be high on the list.

Italy publishes its heritage and tourist sites heavily, and with good reason. However, these industrial cities are not what people are generally seeking in the incomparable beauty of Italy that they see in movies and art, even though a movie was shot in a small part of Vicenza. If someone really wants to do a driving trip through the Veneto, look at a map. It is one big, long plain. Then you get to the feet of the mountains, and there you will find numerous, untouched, never bombed, walled cities from the 1500's and earlier, as pretty as anything you's see in Tuscany or Piemonte.

Conegliano: http://www.comune.conegliano.tv.it/o...ale/index.html

Asolo:http://www.magicoveneto.it/Trevisan/Asolo/Asolo.htm

For Prosecco lovers, Prosecco basically comes from Valdobbiadene. Anything else is like drinking a Sangiovese, and calling it Chianti Classico. If you drink Prosecco and want to learn about it, you go to Valdobbiadene at the foothills of the mountains in the Veneto, not to a large industrial city, if you really want an unforgettable experience.

Finish it off with a grappa from Bassano del Grappa, also in the foot hills of the Veneto mountains:
http://www.magicoveneto.it/Bassano/index.htm

I'm not saying that one shouldn't day trip to Padua or Verona, but there's so much more to the Veneto than staying down on the plains and doing the the routine cities, but to each his or her own. http://www.magicoveneto.it/index.html

It's an interesting time in Venice now. Outgoing President Napolitano just gave his outgoing speech, and a lot of it was about how Europe is growing more unified because of the tragedy in France, and how inspired everyone is from the one million person demonstration. There are Je suis Charlie posters all over in Venice. And law enforcement is everywhere in Venice, in threesomes, such as I've never seen before.

Everyone knows you have to validate your ticket before getting on a vaporetto or a train, but I've never seen it checked, or anyone caught for not doing it. Now, they are stopping most of the people on most vaporettos. It's not disruptive, you just wave your pass or your residence card. I saw only one person caught, a man with a few big Hermes bags and two of his children. He didn't have a pass, and they made him pay 150 euros on the spot. I've never seen security like this. It's still worth coming, and driving the Veneto.