This is what it looks like when a clown spontaneously combusts.

...aaaaand still not caught up.  The Friday before last, Ari and I decided to take a day trip to Ferrara.  It's an adorable little town with a lot of bikers, apparently:

We arrived in the afternoon and decided to wander around a bit, passing such sights as this awesome window:

 And this church:

And this wonderful pairing of purple bike and purple graffiti:

Now, because everyone wants to look at my butt, clearly... no, actually, note the boots.  Yes, those.  Formerly referred to as my "sexy boots", I now refer to them as the "goddamn f***ing boots of Hell".  Why, you ask?  Well, they started to pinch my feet after about two hours of wearing them.  In other words, right when I got off the train.  I ignored the pain, however, as it wasn't that bad at this point and I wanted to explore Ferrara.

Well, we soon came across a CASTLE!!!

With a MOAT!!!

and a DRAWBRIDGE!!!

and a COURTYARD!!!  with WELLS!!!

and... environmentally themed sculptures... with an English pun... in Italy...

We ended up touring the castle, which turned out to be that of the Este family (one of whom married Lucrezia Borgia), rulers of the greater Ferrara area and patrons of the arts.  Wikipedia explains it better than I can:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Este

Anyways, they had some lovely dungeons:

Prison graffiti:

This was the toilet:

Trapdoors and things:

There was also a tower with a lovely view of the city:

and, as everywhere in Italy, amazing ceilings:

All throughout the castle tour, my feet were getting worse and worse.  I literally hobbled down from the tower.  When we reached the courtyard afterward, I had to remove the boots.  Ari, in a truly noble gesture of self-sacrifice, offered to switch boots.  What makes this even more amazing is that the boots are the equivalent of an American 7 1/2 -- my real shoe size (I usually get an 8 though, as I like roomier shoes).  Ari wears an 8 to an 8 1/2.  Ouch!  Amazingly, the boots still aren't stretched out.  They're cursed, I'm telling you.  Anyways, with my feet feeling much better, we decided to grab some dinner.  Oh, and passed this adorable little church:

We ate pumpkin ravioli, a local specialty.  They were amazing.  When we finished eating, it was unfortunately rather dark, but we decided to explore the downtown area a bit.  Another view of the castle:



The cathedral:

And the main piazza:

Column details on the side of the cathedral:

More of the cathedral:

Another piazza to the side of the cathedral:

an awesome statue we found:

another of the "faunal countdown" sculptures:

and Bernard the bubble-blowing bear!  =D  (I named him that)

We wanted to go to a play, but unfortunately there wasn't anything playing that night.  At one point, we walked past a store with a fabulous red coat in the window, very much on sale.  I fell in love with it immediately.  Now, if you'll recall, I was down a coat thanks to the candle incident, and I really did need a warm coat.  So, I decided to at least try it on.  If you know me at all, you'll know that means that I decided to buy it.  Yay!  I now have a fabulous red coat.  And I don't freeze.  What more is there in life?  Anyway, at this point, Ari's feet were (understandably) killing her, so we decided to switch boots again.  Well, the zipper of one of mine was stuck.  And when I say stuck, I mean that the back of the zipper so thoroughly ate part of the leather on the other side that it was practically digested.  We couldn't move it up or down at all.  So, we decided to just leave it until we got to the train.  Well, we got sidetracked by a large glowing monument with an incredibly creepy statue pouring babies out of a jug:

We stopped at the base of this monstrosity and tried again to budge the boot, to no avail.  We ended up returning to the train station and having to wait an hour and a half for our train, at which point I decided to attempt the boot removal again.  This time, I got a pencil, stuck it under the caught flap of leather, and managed to painstakingly jimmy it out from the slider part of the zipper.  So, I successfully performed surgery on a boot with a pencil.  I call a win.  I was quite afraid for awhile that I was going to have to cut the boot off and ruin it.  Anyways, we eventually caught the train and limped back to my apartment, at which point Ari decided to spend the night.  We ate guacamole and watched When Harry Met Sally and Love, Actually.  It was a good night in the end.  We had to get up early the next day, however, to go to Padova.  This time, Jennifer and Drew joined us.  It's an awesome city.  What can I say?  We found a canal right off the bat:

and GECKOS!!!

This is why I love Italy.   Right here.

Some more sights of Padova:

Note the pigeon:

Note the AWESOME COAT! =D

Apparently Saturday is market day in Padova.  I think the entire city was full of tents.  We bought some scarves from a Bangladeshi woman and continued our exploration.  Also, there was an incredible amount of confetti in several of the piazze.  I'm not really sure why.  I made the title comment while taking the picture under it, at which point Drew added, "yeah, or Ke$ha!"  Good times.

We found the ghetto too!

IT WILL EAT YOUR SOUL!!!

Check out these little boats:

leading to a... catcher's mitt?

I love balconies!

And vitamin A overdoses:

Is it gay?  Or is it European?  That is the question that's been tormenting us since we arrived...

They have rats here, too:

And for some reason, I just really liked this house.  I wonder why...

Check this guy out!  He's holding the city!  He's got the whooole wooorld iiin his haaands, he's got the whoooole woooorld iiin his haaands...

I don't know why, but I get the feeling she was martyred...

We eventually made our way to this huge park/piazza, with market tents all around the outside:

Here's the only interesting thing in the church shown above.  It was cavernous, but rather empty and boring.

And here we have St. Anthony's Basilica in the distance:

And a little closer:

This was one of the most beautiful churches I've seen.  I mean, the decorations... the mosaics... the saint's tomb and relics... it was truly amazing.  They were conducting mass when we wandered through, and camera's weren't technically allowed, but I managed to sneak some crappy shots:

Everything was decorated with such intricate detail... the ceiling was amazing-- the domes were blue with stars and peppermint stripes in one part, and I just stared upward in awe for a good while.  There was a little chapel to the side that particularly caught my eye-- constructed with red, green, and white striped marble, it featured a mosaic that with such vibrant colors... this is the best picture I could get (there were a million guards patrolling, it seemed) and it doesn't even begin to do it justice:

Outside, we came across this statue.  How that baby is floating there is beyond me... it seems like it should fall, doesn't it?

We bought some oranges and mozzarella buffala for the train ride home.  I think said cheese is one of my new favorite foods.  So good!  Well, that was really it for Padova.  It was a lovely day, all in all.  I forgot to mention this last time, but when we went to Ravenna a few years ago (this we being my family and I), we saw literally one thing: the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe.  Strangely enough, we didn't see it on our program trip.  Huh.  Here are some pictures, though, just for fun (and because I clearly don't have enough pictures here already):