We went to Santa Maria Antica and the Scalier tombs.

First a look inside the small church.


The graves themselves are in the open. Some of them are very elaborate tombs, others are quite simple sarcophagi. There was a sign at the entrance saying that you could only enter with a ticket for one of the city's museums. When I asked, I was told that you could also get in if you put a voluntary donation in a small basket.

On the way back to the arena and then to the car, I stopped briefly at Venchi. It's a chain of chocolatiers that also sells ice cream. It was decent, okay for a snack.

The last thing I looked at in Verona was San Zeno. It's just outside the city centre, so we took the car there.

Built as an abbey church in the 12th century, it still has many old paintings to offer. The skeleton of the saint lies in the crypt.

I was looking for a hotel in the Padua region because I still had a few white spots on my map of Italy. After some research, I was interested in the Esplanade in Montegrotto Terme. It was in a good location and looked quite modern. The rooms included a suite with a whirlpool on the terrace and sauna, which looked neat. Nevertheless, it was a big unknown for me, I had never heard of the hotel before. In terms of price, the suite was not cheap at around �900 per night; a few years ago I wouldn't have paid that for a fairly normal-looking 5-star hotel, even if it was the largest suite.
When booking, it was possible to book half board for �40 more per night. Even if I wanted to eat out one evening, it was a good deal. I booked it because even if I hadn't eaten out twice, it would still have paid off according to my bill. In the end it was actually a very good deal, but more on that later.
When we arrived at the hotel they managed to piss me off a bit at first. There was work going on at the entrance gate, only one gate was open which I later found out was the exit. Do you drive through there now?

After I got out, I realised that it was the only access road to the hotel. So I just drove through. The hotel itself didn't look like my usual hotels. Even if you couldn't deny certain modernisations, it was a rather ugly building.


It looked a bit nicer at the entrance.


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Wow. That looks like a company retreat hotel from the 70s. I would have thought I arrived at the wrong address.

I’ve got to agree with Fabo.sk on that. If I arrived and saw that frontage knowing it was €900 a night I’d be checking my cancellation policy before checking in. One hopes it was all uphill thereafter?

Yes, I was in a really bad mood too. Plus the problem of driving in front of the hotel, I had to be slowed down a bit by GF.

To be fair, �900 is their top suite, you can stay there much cheaper, but also (according to the photos) more simply.
Just wait and see what happens next.

After the first impression, let's go to the hotel. I realised relatively quickly that practically everyone here speaks German - I had landed in a German colony. Of course, I'm not accusing anyone of having foreign language skills, but it's strange. At one point, people even apologised to us, saying that we needed to learn German even better. Well, we are in Italy. I should work harder on my Italian....
But back to the hotel. In the lobby, an effort has been made to liven up the elongated room with modern art. The lobby area is actually well done.











Our room was on the first floor.

Some of you may be wondering what the �900 "Vital SPA Suite" in the hotel looked like. Sure, I had seen pictures on the website beforehand, but I didn't really know much. It was a bit of a mystery. After all, I had read that it was 75 square metres + 18 square metres of terrace.
When we entered the room, the impression was mixed. The furnishings were quite modern and there were nice details. On the other hand, it has to be said that �900 for this room is quite a lot.













We didn't really need the sauna, but we were looking forward to the whirlpool on the terrace. It looked really good too.




Unfortunately, it had one tiny disadvantage. A circulation pump was permanently active and could not be switched off. The thing was mega loud, I tried to make a video (switch on the sound!).
You could hear it in the bedroom, a real imposition. We asked if we could switch it off. The answer was no. If you are even a light sleeper and sensitive to noise, you can forget the suite. GF grumbled why I always had to take the biggest one.
From the terrace you had a good view of the pool area, more on that later.






The view out the front.

The obligatory floor plan.

If it hadn't been for the problem with the whirlpool from hell, it would actually have been a decent suite. If it had been priced a little more reasonably (I think �500 would be fair), it would be easy to recommend. As it is, I'm only satisfied to a limited extent. It wasn't a disaster, but it wasn't great either.

Good Lord that comes across as loud! I�d feel aggrieved that it would be considered acceptable.

�GF grumbled why I always had to take the biggest one.�

Just�. you have no idea how strong the temptation for off-colour comment is right now

I don't have such a fantasy...

Now that I've already grumbled a bit, let's move on to the SPA. And there was nothing to complain about. You could already see part of it from the balcony. Large and wonderfully warm thermal water. In the spa area, there was initially a large indoor pool with underwater bikes and 2 whirlpool areas.

Outside there was a small pool enriched with oxygen (on the right) and the large thermal pool with different areas.

There was also an adults-only area on the roof, where a fireplace was lit in the evening. We were the only guests in the water on 2 visits - marvellous.





The SPA is really one of the nicest I've ever had in a hotel. If you like relaxing in the water, you'll really get your money's worth here. In this respect, it could hardly be better.

Time for the first dinner. Here, too, they were fully catering for Germans, as the menu shows.

In the hotel all guests have a fixed table, ours was in the nicer part of the restaurant.


The meal begins with starters from the buffet. In addition to salads, there are cold dishes, actually there was always meat such as carpaccio and fish such as scallops or tuna.






The second course was then served, today we had ravioli. Solid.

The main course was octopus, also tasty.

For dessert, there was a cheese buffet with really good cheeses.


There was a large dessert buffet, and you could also order ice cream if you wished.



The food was certainly not of star quality, but it was good. Sensational for the price of �20 per person, but otherwise pleasant.

Now it's time to explore again. We went to Padua. First a short walk across the Prato della Valle.