After some problems made it impossible to realise the first brasilian MOS in 05, we are glad we got it going in 2006. Eventhough we could not do the jam at the old spot, a new one had been found.

The first brasilian MOS turned out to be a succesfull event! The wall had been long and gave space for a lot of artists. The new wall was located in Leblon, a better situated area southside.

The wall was approx 200m long and between 4 to 5 meters high, solid and ready to be painted. Why again a new spot? Well, our local told us the story, that recently in the past two months before the MOS it happened that writers got threatened by so-called securities. They didnt only threaten them with a pulled gun, but also with murderer. No kidding! The securities told the writers that the only reason why they let them come along was to tell everybody else that writing on this wall could cause serious danger for their health.

Eventhough the wall had been used for Graffiti- and Mural-Jams in the past, eventhough we would get a permission for it, we dont do it there. Simply because you can never trust these kind of securities.
	Another point is that the old wall is located in the harbour-district of Rio. And if you have ever been to cities with a big harbour, you know how it is. Another idea which came up was to do the Jam in one of the Favellas.

Exotic idea, but kind of too dangerous too. In these areas usually it´s the people who live there who are around, no tourists or writers from outside the hood. Though the scafoldings havent been delivered and there were not enough ladders for everybody,

it didnt keep people away from having a good time. Artists from different cities of the country as well as artists from outside the country arrived friday evening to check out the spot and to work on concepts and ideas.
	A club-party near the venue opened the MOS-weekend in rio´s party-district Leblon. During the night some commission-job had been done while the Jam started saturday morning.
Artists been buisy all day long and started around 9 in the morning painting straight through into the night. Last writers left the spot at night or better early at sunday morning. Seems like the didnt get enough of it. Artists from all over

Brasil, Switzerland, Germany, England, France, Holland, Belgium and the US participated and made it a real international Jam. Store from around the venue donated food for almost everybody on the set, while some gang-leaders provided tea and biscuits. Saturday was rounded up with another party in a club near-by.

	Afternoon a showcasehappened at the venue with Du-gueto, Dr. San, Os Peregrinos, Welf, Kapella, Ricardinho, Rimas e Tintas and B-Boy-Battle.Its gonna be the real flavour.
On sunday the whole story continued in the morning. Writers about to finish productions. Afternoon showcase with A Resistencia, Zoi, Cidelle PQD, El Tosh, Marechal, DJ Saci. Near by the new venue in Leblon was a beach to chill, nice discotheccas, sport-yards and chilly people in a chilly neighborhood.

Line-Up: acme, gloye, mer, muk, criz, anarkia, eco, kaja, chico, ment, bragga, ocrespo, stile, preas, ino, amog, sub, quem, cety, shun, cora, scrau, cove, cove, letz, nitcho, timy, afa, fael, tu ja’ viu, om, reis and many more (Rio De Janeiro), dois, deninja, graphis, bart, derf, bonga, rek, lèo, shock (Sao Paulo), bigode, sins, drico (Salvador), natan, beco crew (Porto Allegre), dalata (Belo Horizonte), abraço beam

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Rio de Janeiro is the second major city of Brasil after Sao Paolo. Commonly known as just Rio, the city is also nicknamed A Cidade Maravilhosa – “The Marvelous City”. The population of the City is about 6.136.652, of the larger metropolitan area is estimated at 11-12 million. It was Brazil’s capital until 1960, when Brasilia took its place. Residents of the city are known as Cariocas. In Rio de Janeiro, buses are the main means of masstranportation. There are nearly 440 municipal bus lines serving over four million passengers each day, in addition to intercity lines. Although cheap and frequent, Rio’s transportation policy has been moving towards trains and subway in order to reduce traffic jams and increase capacity. Rio has two subwaylines and several commuter rail lines. Future plans include building a third subway line, including an underwater Drugs and the Favela Cops acting in the favela

The Colombian cocaine trade has impacted Brazil and in turn its favelas, which tend to be ruled by druglords. Regular shoot-outs between traffickers and police and other criminals, as well as assorted illegal activities, lead to murder rates in excess of 40 per 100,000 inhabitants in the city of Rio and much higher rates in some Rio favelas.Traffickers ensure that individual residents believe they can guarantee their own safety through their actions and political connections to them. They do this by maintaining order in the favela and giving and receiving reciprocity and respect, thus creating an environment in which critical segments of the local population feel safe despite continuing high levels of violence.

Despite the attempts to cleanse Brazil’s major cities like Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo of favelas, the poor population is continuing to grow at a rapid pace as well as the modern favelas that house them. In 1969, there were approximately 300 favelas in Rio de Janeiro, today there are twice as many. In fact, the population of the favelas is growing faster than the population of Brazil as a whole. In 1950, only 7 percent of Rio de Janeiro’s population lived in favelas, in the 21st century it has grown to 19 percent or about one in five people living in a favela. According to national census data, from 1980-1990, the overall growth rate of Rio de Janeiro dropped by 8 percent, but the favela population increased by 41 percent. After 1990, the city’s growth rate leveled at 7 percent, but the favela population increased by 24 percent. By the year 2000, this created an all-time high of people living in concentrated poverty.
Current increases in the population of favelas can not be credited to the original reasons of rural to urban migration or foreign immigration. These increases can more accurately be linked to the increased downward economic and social mobility of the people. The middle classes are getting poorer and unable to find affordable housing close to work, and the lowest classes are being voluntarily or involuntarily pushed out of the formal favelas of the inner city and into irregular favelas of the periphery because of gentrification. It is difficult to increase one’s social and economic status in Brazil’s major cities because of the decrease in job opportunities for uneducated and unskilled workers and the decrease in manufacturing jobs for blue-collar workers. There are currently higher educational standards for job entry, but it is extremely complicated for the urban poor to gain higher education. The public education system is not a reliable source for college preparation. Although college education is free, high entrance exam scores are necessary and a large majority of young favela inhabitants do not have access to the academically competitive private schools and expensive preparatory courses to prepare them for the test.

After the great success of the mexican MOS in 2005, it was a must to come back to the country of unidentified flying objects, pyramids, taccos and tequillas. The place to be: the capitol Mexico-City with more than 23millions people…. its a very exotic and diverse country.

Mexico has a long tradition of mural-painting. The entire capitol is tagged very hard and beside of all the throw-ups, tags and bombings, music bands like El Norte have walls painted with their names all over the city.

Mexico-City is humoungous, tremendous, endless. You need more than 4 hours to cross it. The jam started smooth eventhough at a new spot – kind of soccer-stadium with a lot of green to chill with many walls around in different sizes. Early in the morning some writers already met to prepare the walls. Around high-noon most wall space was already taken. Mexican Graf-Scene itself is not so old. Most people are saying that the Graf-movement started in the 90ies. Considering this, its amazing how fast it has developed concerning quantity and quality. Writers came from all over the country. The vibe was like the mentality of the people – very chill, nice and friendly.

The artworks… impressive. Mexico has an own flavour in lettering and characters.

It´s like a tradition that each and every year the MOS-Westcoast got at a new spot. After the project has made the way from LA to San Diego, the project this year the jam happened in the Bay-area.

The showdown was scheduled to happen in Oakland on a spot located right next to the train-tracks. Oakland is right across the bay to San Francisco.

Oakland – city of the Black-Panter-Party has a long tradition of political consciousness. Here the civil-movement started back in the 60ies as a reaction of increasing Police-brutality.
	From here the movement spread to the East-coast and inspired people from all different races who suffered under segregation and the dominating elites.

Due to certain reasons the owner of the spot had withdrawn the permission to do the Jam where it was scheduled. But eventhough the Jam happened… around Fremont-High-School, Foothill and 45th Street. Five nice walls located near-by. So at the end it was all good!

Oakland – the last station of the US-MOS was kind of wicked. The original spot near the famous train-tracks suddenly wasnt possible anymore due to irritation of the landlord who thought the MOS would go over the Dream-Memorial,
	which was never the plan, caused us to change the location to a nice yard next to Fremont-High-School.

After the confusion calmed down the wall got primed Friday all day long. The option to meet and to hang out inspired some writers to meet and to clarify some gossip and some beefs they had, so Friday turned into the clarification-day. The beef got solved not through words, but fists, because sometimes talk is a waste of time, so they obviously thought.

	After that was solved and the walls primed, Saturday was ready to become a nice colourfull and peacefull day. So the jam started early before noon. Writers got in, caught a spot, rocked the walls. The TDK-Crew, Old-School-Crew of Dream (RIP) and Vogue, real originals from Oakland and the Bay-Area, came to hang out.
Already back in the late 80ies these heads were painting stuff that was very advanced at this time and still is. Eventhough there were no Djs, the car-sounds-systems underlined the jam with tunes.

A lot of writers from around Cali, LA, San Diego, Sacramento, Oakland and San Fran showed up. Old-School-King Vulcan gave the honour of a short visit, short because he was buisy with a nice nice project in San Fran.

	Sunday wasnt a chilly day, but full of entertainment. Wash House-Music and Thizz-Entertainemnt came along to shoot parts for the video of Vital´s album, an upcoming Rap-Star from the Bay-Area.
The film-crew came along with a motor-cycle-crew who were doing mad wheelies and a crazy fog-machine.

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Chicago – windy city at the great lake, city of Al Capone, Eliott Ness, gangs and culture. Chicago is a quite inspiring place, not only because of the local Hip-Hop, but also because of its vibe.

Here you got to watch out where you move. Two streets down the block and you find yourself in a No-Go-Area. Chicago – city of gangs and mafia. You got to watch out for your style over there.

Not because of the writers, but because of the gangsters. You got to be alert that you dont create your style similar to some of the gang-signs.This city has been under control of the Mafia since a long time.
	Some people say that the clan of the mayor is seriously related to white-collar-crime. The family of the present mayor was running the city for more than 15 years in the latest past.

The city-administration might be corrupted, the hip-hop-scene aint. These people at the great lake are truely into celebrating Hip-Hop-Culture at its finest level. So no wonder that the jam started early saturday morning

King Zore, the local Graffiti-pate had done his burner the night before, as he had to leave saturday early in the morning.

SB-Crew had it under control. Beon and Nyke have done a lot to bring you a colorufull nice event. Walls were primed, the sun was shining, everything ready for the Chicago Blues. Writers came in time, ready and willing to rock the walls with a lot of dope wild-style-burners.
	So they did. Around high-noon the Knomadz put up the sound-system for DJ MP to spin. There have been several walls among several blocks in the neighborhood Little Village.

The spot – the Wall Of Styles – is around Kedzie and 30th, near Albany.

TMP-Crew came all the way from New York to rock a wall with a homage to Old-School-Train-Graffiti, illustrating a yard with the nice red subways.
	The DC5 rocked a wall with the best wishes for a friend who has to go to Iraq to fight the war for Cheney, Bush and Co..

After the jam was finished Saturday late night, everybody got back to the scene around high-noon Sunday to fnish up.

Lots of these dope Chicago-Wild-Style-burners, characters in a very chilly and positive vibe. Sunday evening the MOS was closed with another dope party at Subterreanean at Damen-station.
	Major Chitwon-Rap-Acts came to celebrate Hip-Hop at its finest. On the mic: Ang13, female Old-School-Writer and Rap-entertainer.

Mr. Who of the Blunt Crew in his military boots, Demon of the Knomadz were throwing revolutionary lyrics to raise consciousness.

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Chicago-Rules To Paint: Crews are prioritized, as a group can usually pull off more than an individual. We do not have spaces for individuals. Last year we had to create smaller spaces, which ultimately ended up sloppier, and were the first things buffed.

First contact, proven skills, first served: we ask that you send several pictures of your artwork. These will be measured against other flicks, and weighed first on a crew basis. If you are alone, or your crew is not dependable enough, we recommend you link with other individuals that you want to paint with to make a`crew for a day’.

Once the meetings begin, it is again first come first served. Those crews who arrive first receive priority. There were many people who contacted us, but did not come to the meeting…their loss.

We automatically reserve a certain amount of space for out-of-towners, so that they are guaranteed for their travels. This year we are asking out-of-towners to also submit work, because the hood needs quality painting when they do not know the painters. This year we are looking at a different location, so there will be less wall space and hopefully more concentrated interaction. Only ten crews and five individuals received paint last year, and this will probably be the case again. The majority of painters had to supply their own paint for their walls. Be prepared to not paint! I am preparing myself, because we have to establish how much space can fit how many writers, and we do not want writers crowding each other. Ultimately there are no promises being made now. We need flicks to put you in a possible rotation. Feel free to send any more questions about MOS Chicago.

NYC is a tuff place when it comes to Graffiti. The city has been bombed hard since years, so no question about the fact that the city of New York is running a strict Anti-Graffiti-campaign since years.

No doubt that it is not easy to do a Jam in the Big Apple. But eventhough we managed three times and managed it fourth time again.

New York City – the mecca, the place where Graf took its long journey across the planet. In these days things over there aint that easy anymore. The city of NY is doing a lot to keep Graf down.
	But eventhough they try hard, Graffiti cant be faded! And the MOS succeeded. Col of the Robots Will Kill-Crew and King Cope had done a lot to make sure that the Meeting Of Styles NYC will turn out as a dope event. And indeed it did.

More walls, more space, more writers was the goal in 2006. The target: several walls among two blocks in the South Bronx. By friday night the FX-crew was buisy priming the wall so they were ready to burn at saturday.

Early in the morning many writers already been buisy working on their pieces. The 156-boys from Montreal came all the way to show up as well as many writers from NYC, Boston and Europe as well as some of the few female writers.

lot of people came along, to chill, to paint, the FX was buisy rocking a huge wall with a dope djungle-concept. All day people were painting, chatting, chilling.
	If you hear Bronx you might think – Ghetto, and still it is kind of like that, eventhough a lot had been done to make it better. But the vibe at the jam was not ghetto at all.

It was a chilled and very constructive atmosphere. Writers been buisy until late night to a time when you are usually not supposed to hang around in the Bronx anymore.

Sunday was the day to finish the pieces and concepts and so it was done. This year no problems occured with the Vandal Squad.
	Some regular cops came along, curious why so many writers hang out there, painting, talking.So they asked for the permission, but no problem. Cope was prepared. Check out the results!

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Spot is: East 173rd st./Westfarm Road Bronx.

Another premier of 2006 happened in Montreal – Canada. This city is famous for its liberal attitude and life-style. The Montreal Graf-scene is pretty vivid and has a long history of activities.

Several Jams in the past supported the scene and made it real strong. Be ready to see Graf from another spot in this world.
	The address is 1435 Bleury. The Metro stop is Place Des Arts, Autobus that can get there are 80, 129 and 24.

The organization considers having successfully taken up the challenge or putting together an important artistic demonstration, over two days, in the heart of Montreal’s downtown area.

The BBQ event was really appreciated. Saturday and Sunday, the artists were buisy painting the walls. Despite the bad weather, more than 60 muralists worked seriously and with high professionalism. More than 6500 people came and watched them work.

	We must mention that there was a lot of action downtown, during the Labor Day weekend: Film festival, Musique Plus’ Open doors, back to school shopping. The music and visual impact of the Meeting Of Styles successfully caught the eye of the passer-by.
The evening events on Saturday and Sunday gave the occasion to the artists and party goers to meet and hang out. Saturday, a private party in a downtown loft ended early in the morning. Sunday, a poster exhibit presented by Sharpie closed this first edition of the event.

We are proud of having organized a major gathering around the theme of graffiti culture, without any problems, in calm and creative atmosphere. We strongly wish to make it happen again next year.

It will be most important to have better funding for the 2007 edition. We have established our credibility and wish for our project to prompt public organizations and private companies to help our inititives, and to benefit from the visibility we have to offer.

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North meets South meets West meets East” was the topic of this years belgian MOS. As Muntplein is still under construction Kavka-Center housed the MOS again.

Beside of expiriencing all disciplines you had the chance to see finest Graffiti-Artists working on a huge production and a program of finest rapping, DJing, beatboxing and breakdancing.

The original Antwerp-spot – the famous Muntplein – was and still is under construction. Eventhough its still possible to paint there, its just not possible to get a legal permission for a Jam.
	So Uncle B.U.G.T has found a new spot at the youth-center Kavka near by. Its a nice yard with a huge wall and smaller walls around. The venue is located very central, has a nice club for an after-party and concert.

More than 60 writers from countries all over Europe participating in Kavka and it was good there. More writers showed up than planned.

Resm really worked hard to get the painting in order and than he almost had to be kicked out from the center otherwise he had been working through the night. A lot of people been on the big wall: The X-Crew, Petados from Spain, Maria Caktus, Supa, Koes, Jano from Italy, Casroc, Focus, Dome, Rusl, Resm, WOF-Crew from Greece…

Arkis, Waf and Omri from Alosta, TCF-Crew from England, DNYE and Zone., Dfek from Canada and Dex from Ireland, Aerosol Kids, Steas, Bird and Skenda, 3 guys from Florida and more. The theme for 2006 “North meets South meets West meets East” has been chosen because Antwerp has a big harbour where people from all over the world have started their trip over to the new continent.

	In past the Red Star Line was one of the shipping companies in Antwerp which brought of a lot of immigrants to New York. Another reason is, because Antwerp-people see themselves as the “centre of the world”.
But the most important reason is that in october 06 was election time for the local government. Presently in Antwerp they have 30% of the people voting for extreme right.

	Chino and Dfek rocked a truck legally in the middel of the street. The local orga. had printed permits from the police to paint at the Muntplein which was used by a ot of painters from the Netherlands. The youth center was completely in the hands of the MOS.
A lot of people came to visit the meeting, to see exhibition or to see the presentation of Chino aboutr NYC-Graffiti back in the days.

	For the rest some very good breaking, beatboxing, breaking, rapping, dj-ing, chilling, loving, more breaking, rapping, DJ-ing all with a nice relaxed vibe.

All in all a festival of 4 days with no incidents Program Meeting Of Styles 2006, Antwerp (Belgium) at Jongerencentrum Kavka – Oudaan 14 te, 2000 Antwerpen, Emma VZW – Droogdokkenweg – Antwerpen Noord (Harbour-area)

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www.Kavka.be

After it wasnt possible to do the Jam in Almere we are glad that a new spot was found – the legendary Eindhoven Hall-Of-Fame was the place to be.

The reason is that the city only allows public fundings three times for one project. So we were told. Crazy, because once an event is established and well-known, they dont support it anymore.
	But nevertheless, with the help of a motivated dutch head a new option occured in Eindhoven – Hollands 5th biggest city. The local has done a great job and presented a very dope and credible dutch Meeting Of Styles

The spot: the Eindhoven-Hall-Of-Fame contains many walls in a traffic-circle with bridges and underpasses. The Jam started early saturday morning.
	Writers and legends from all over Holland came early to represent. You must know that the Netherlands has a long and old tradition of Graffiti. Already early in the 80ies there was a scene of active graf-Writers.

Amsterdam – another Venice of the North – for a long time, was probably the most bombed city in Europe, almost no metra-train was running without a piece on it. Nowadays that might has changed a bit, but still: Holland is strong. So a lot of living legends such as Ces53, Serch, Milk, Fume and more came along to show their skills.

The 2006-Holland-Jam was very fresh, even fresher than the weather was and somehow reminded to the WallStreetMeeting-Jams. Why?
	Because of the participating artists. Because there were so many writers, that some pieces from saturday were overpainted sunday. Samplism was hooking up the event with nice sounds all day long.

So beside of the smell of tea everywhere, the BBQ and the music made everybody forget the rain that fell sometimes.

As you can see the spot is pretty nice. Lots of green around to chill and to relax, many walls all over and located pretty central. Location: The Berenkuil (Insulindeplein) in Eindhoven.
	Soundsystem by SAMPLISM… Streetlab (Amsterdam) is coming.. Montanashop with paint and goodies. Small After-Party on Saturdaynight in the city-centre. Guest DJ”s SERCH and SUEZ.

Line-up so far: CES53 – DESHAMER – FUME – MILK – MICKEY – SELONE – SERCH – CANTWO – ATOM – DRCHESS87 – TETRIS – SMASH – SCAGE – BKID – EROSIE – CASROC – DFEK M – SCAN – FUNK25 – DUBS – JORZ – EFAS – SHOGUN – CACTUS – MARIA – KNAL – STYLE1 – KAYO – TRESS and many local hero’s..

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At Eindhoven Central-Station take the northern exit to the bus-stops. Walk towards the big RABOBANK building and go to the right. You’re now on the Prof. Dr. Dorgelolaan. After 1.5 km you enter the location of the MOS 2006.

By car from Dusseldorf…Take highway A44 towards Monchengladbach. Direction exit 27 Nimwegen/Krefelt. At Krefelt take A57/E31. Than take A40/E34 towards Venlo… Entry into the Netherlands. Take A67 towards Eindhoven.At Eindhoven take exit 33 to centrum. You’re now on the road called Leenderweg. After 1.5km take a right turn on street Piuslaan. Go straight ahead till you see the railway. Take the road underneath the railway and after 200 meters there’s the location of the MOS 2006..

After we were able to realise the MOS-East three times Belars, the country of so called “Europe´s last dicktator”, it got kind of hard to realise it in 2005.

When the permission for the original spot in Gomel was withdrawn by the local city-council, True Stilos had a hard time to find a new spot. Luckily a new option occured in President Putin´s hometown St.Petersburg.

The perspective to do the Jam in Belarus was not so good. As we had the chance to avoid problems we decided to change city and country and moved more east to the land of KGB, mafia, babuschkas and wodka.
	Russia, the empire of the evil during the cold war. St. Petersburg, the second biggest city of Russia was the place to be. This city is called Venice of the north, because it has a lot of canals going through the city.

It´s a very nice and old city with a lot of nice architecture.

Line-Up: Prisco MTR (Puerto Rico), Rok2 (Austria), DFM-Crew, Cazo (Germany), Cik (UK), Liquid, Mors, Odes, Dzenik, Tito (Belarus), Dna, Splash, Mores, H.Crab, Trun (St.Petersburg), Aske, Oskes, Kola, Kiosk, Akus, Mark,
	Freak, Mesr, Yes, Zmogk, Zomb, Nabor (Moscow),Warums (Brest), Sten, Lexus, Sjam (N-Novgorod), Grif, Urka, Massa (Kazan), Zloy, Meser, Echo (Ekaterinburg) and many more.

The Jam started friday afternoon with priming the walls, thinking and working about concepts. The organisation was very well done. More and more people came along as well as writers from all parts of Russia.

You got to know that in Russia, it may take one or two day-trips to travel by train from one city to the other. Writers travelled from Murmansk, Kirkusk, Moscow, Minsk and other places to leave a mark at the MOS or just to make connections and to meet people.

The spot was pretty nice – a wall of approx 600m lenght up to 2.50m high. As you can see in the gallery, russian Graffiti-Art is on a very high level, the scene well connected and the writers very kind.

Russia is different for western people. At first sight, the common russian of every-day-life is a kind of moody person, but there are a lot of nice and kind people too, at second sight. The weather was kind of wicked, windy, a little rain, not too warm but still with sunny breaks. A lot of spectators came along, TV, radio and newspapers. All day long DJs spinned records and created a chilly, relaxed vibe.

Saturday night the Carhartt-After-Party was held in a nice nice club near the harbour. Sunday early in the morning artists appeared at the set, ready to finish the works.

The week-end was simply nice and dope with impressions from another exotic country in the East.

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After the first italian MOS in Padova 2005 with more than 100 writers, the project came back with a new spot, a topic, new program and dope italian graffiti-artists from all around the country. Dolce vita a bella italia!

Padova is a very nice city near Venice. Its famous and wellknown for its clothing- and textile-industry.

The spot, an underpass-complex, contained more than 1500squaremeters of solid cement-walls up to a height of 4m. At friday a lot of artists from all around Italy came in, ready to snatch cans, walls, to prime the walls and to work on the concept – Underwater….
	Over the weekend a funky festival happened near-by, so it was very nice to paint and then to check out the festival. At saturday the Jam was burning as well as the sun was.

Beside of italian artists, you could meet writers from Puerto Rico, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. As the common italian is more a kind kind of human-being, the vibe was very nice.

	Italian scene is highly connected and most of the activists really do come along with each other.
How to get there? The spot: Giardino Fantasia – Via Ticino, Padova. Car: exit Padova ovest, follow direction for padova, turn left, follow via po, pass the redlight and straight on the overpass.

When you go down, take the second street on your right and you arrive in via Ticino. By train: Exit from the rear side of Padua station, go to the left , walk for about 700m and turn to the left when you see via Ticino.

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