What’s new in Padova?
Our first month and a half has been quite hectic. I have now settled into a work pattern which gives me a sense of purpose and routine I desperately needed after lockdown and summer at home. We have also recently moved flat and didn’t have WiFi for the first couple of weeks after we got here, so that’s another reason for this late post. I’ll dive in and separate different aspects of our time in sections to make this post less stressful on the eye.
My new home
Padova is beautiful. As my sole mode of transport is on foot, I make sure that I take in my surroundings and take nothing for granted. This city feels special to me because parts of it feel like Oxford, my English hometown, and parts of it feel like Venice, my Italian hometown. The cobblestoned streets on my walk to work resemble the side streets that weave through the Oxford colleges. On my walk home from work there’s a a view of buildings that spring right out of a canal that is so picture-perfect it seems like a copy of a Venice postcard.
Also, golden hour here is something else. The light bounces off the buildings in a way that contrasts the sky like I’ve never seen anywhere else.
Consumption of food and drinks and even clothing is still very much on a local level here which I love. Weekend markets grace Prato della Valle every weekend and in the mornings the squares are littered with little fruttivendoli (fruit and veg merchants) that often give us free fruit to thank us for our custom.
One of the best things has to be how cheap the Aperol spritzes are, unlike the extortionate prices you get in England because they’re considered a cocktail. It makes it perfectly affordable to have one every day in the early evening. They always come with complimentary snacks as well which is the dream. Our favourite little place is a stand in Prato della Valle that is run by two lovely old men that are so nice to us and always tell us when they have events on. These soirées consist of a musician/DJ (so far a sax or piano player) that does the background music by the seating area. Sitting in the squares in the centre with a spritz is also immensely enjoyable and is almost as good a place to sit and people watch as our place in the corner of Prato. I really miss this little routine I had going after work. Now with the second wave as I said before places close at 6pm and they have also imposed a 10pm curfew.
My new internship
I must say I feel incredibly blessed to have this internship and to have a sense of routine. I just hope we won’t be made to work from home soon because then my internship will be put on hold (because apparently I can only do it in-office). Then I will no longer have a sense of purpose or routine. Or an income. Fingers crossed. Anyway let’s move on from corona chat because we hear enough of that already.
Initially, I found it difficult to adjust to being an intern and I think they found it difficult too because they weren’t sure where to fit me in, being busy with their upcoming project deadlines. To be completely honest I felt a bit like a spare tool for the first couple of weeks. But now that I’ve built more of a relationship with my colleagues it’s becoming progressively easier and I’m being given more responsibility and things to do.
My Italian is going from strength to strength and my writing is improving day by day at work as I learn to write in different contexts for social media purposes.
Putting together press reviews and sending off press releases to journalists and websites has allowed me to better understand the inner workings of a press office. Our company was also responsible for organising the events to celebrate the anniversary of Padova’s residential housing company; attending these events, greeting guests (and taking their temperature because we live in strange times) was an exciting change of scenery from the office.
Social butterflies flying
In our first couple of weeks Italy still had very low daily figures of new Covid cases so we were able to socialise and meet new people. At Erasmus events we met many lovely people from all over. Seeing the city come alive at night with students in the squares and discovering little bars on the side streets meant I experienced Padova in a different way to when I’ve been here in the past with my family. All with masks of course, and a police car not far off – just your usual 2020 stuff. All that now feels like a distant memory as all restaurants and bars close at 6pm in response to the second wave that has flooded Italy, as it has the rest of Europe.
