We cruised through the Venetian Lagoon to Chioggia and the Adriatic Sea. I would have to say that the Venetian Lagoon is incredibly uninteresting. I don't know what I expected - islands dotted everywhere; towns along the lagoon? Certainly something more than just water. The most interesting sight was a man washing his boat in his jocks and t-shirt. This was made more interesting by the fact he was in the middle of the lagoon and the water was only up to his knees. This really brought home how shallow the lagoon is.

We docked at Chioggia because of a new law brought in by the Italian government 12 months ago that does not allow passengers to be on river boats when sailing the Adriatic Passage . Given that it's a flat bottom boat with a shallow draft, I wouldn't want to be on board anyway as we were told that it can be rough sailing. This Passage has to be crossed to get from the lagoon to the River Po. Uniworld get around this by organising a half-day excursion after a buffet lunch from Chioggia to Padua (known as Padova in Italian); returning to the boat at Porto Vito.

On our walking tour of the old town of Padua we started at the Prato della Valle - supposedly the largest public square in Europe. It didn't look that big to me. Our walk took us to St Anthony's Basilica - the main reason for visiting Padua. The Basilica, built specifically to house the remains of St Anthony, is a mixture of architectures, with minaret-like spires and Byzantine domes. St Anthony is the patron saint of lost and stolen things. Could be a handy saint to have around - especially as I've got to an age where I can't remember where I put things. We weren't allowed inside - oh, so disappointing!

It is claimed that the University of Padua, founded in 1222, is the second oldest university in Italy . Galileo and Dante were students here.

I finished the walking tour with a signature coffee at Caffè Pedrocchi. Built like a Classical temple, the Caffè Pedrocchi has been a famous meeting place for students and intellectuals since it opened in 1831. The café has three rooms - the white room, the red room and the green room. You can sit in the green room all day without being expected to order anything. The signature coffee is a Caffè Pedrocchi - a coffee with mint cream. This actually tasted good.

Back on board for dinner (5 courses) while the boat sailed for Polesella where we docked for the night.

The drive from Chioggia was very boring - flat, flat, flat countryside with nothing in it.

Padua is not an attractive town - very disappointing.