The Frankfurt airport features a long walkway with changing lighting and ambient music.

Unfortunately this is my first food option in Europe.

The highlight of my Frankfurt-Venice connection was its journey over the Alps.

Here is Venice and its causeway to the mainland. Unfortunately this was a particularly hazy day.

I just noticed that my airplane had a soccer nose - this is actually a distinct feature that I didn't see on other Lufthansa airplanes parked at VCE.

A courtyard in University of Padova.

The hallways are lined with plaques of former students.

A view of the University of Padova Basilica, where most of our luncheons and poster sessions took place.

More of the basilica. You can also see the entrance to Archivo Antivo, where the presentations took place (Copernicus had spent a lot of time in there).

In the basilica of the university, there were several statues of famous alumni and professors. Copernicus was a student from 1501 to 1505. Galileo was a professor in the later half of that century.

For dinner, eight of us went to "Da Gorgio Alla Piazze", a restaurant recommended by a local. We had excellent procuitto and cheese for appetizer, and we got free champagne, cheese tartlettes, small desserts, and a big assortent of breads. The dinner group - Meadows, Matt, David, Maura, me, Sam, Lakshman, and Tom. We were all U.S. teams. That was the best meal in all our recent memories.

A shot of Via Flume off Piazza dei Signori.

A 99 cent store, though the 99 cent is in euros.

Piazza delle Erbe - very busy farmer's market.

A mushroom stand - just as I learned from Rick Steves.

There was some sort of demonstration going on in front of the University of Padova. There were many marching groups.

Down Via San Francesco.

This is supposed to be Galileo's residence, as indicated by the sign on the right of this photo.

A look down Via Cesarotti.

Basilica San Antonio

Lots of pigeons in the Piazza del Santo in front of the Basilica. The little boy had a lot of fun chasing them around.

The courtyard of the Basilica displayed tombs of (what I assume) previous priests.

One of the entraces into Orto Botanica.

After Orto Botanica, I proceeded to Prato della Valle, an expansive square featuring a ring of articifial river with many statues and bridges. Here you see Basilica San Antonio in the background.

I jog to this Prato each morning. It is a gorgeous square.

The beautiful architecture in the background is another Padova Commons.

In the background here is Basilica Santa Giustina.

Chiesa Torresino, in the middle of a six-way intersection.

Proceeding down Via del Seminario (so named because the Seminario is to its immediate right). A lot of Padova streets are named after an adjacent architecture.

This bridge connects to the Castello's side.

Castello del Carraresi, reflected in the Tronco Maestro as I cross Ponte Paleocapa. Turns out the Castello is part of the Astronomy Department of University of Padova.

Piazza delle Erbe at night - the farmers market has cleared.

At the Nanochallenge gala dinner on Friday night.

The restaurant owner demonstrated his skill in de-corking a champagne bottle with a sword, wearing the medal he earned for this talent.