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The panic about the danger to the Arena Chapel seems a bit over the top. It is true that the Chapel is unlikely to survive an earthquake following the idiotic roof 'restorations' of 1963/4 which put concrete up there, but there is not much that can be done about this now, I suspect. Padua was indeed once destroyed by an earhquake- in about 1090 I seem to remember, at a time when the city would have been mainly made of wood, mud and brick. Even with its wooden beams intact, the Chapel is unlikely to survive such an event. Perhaps we should accept that to have had the Chapel for 700 years is very lucky, and any earthquakes that come along now... Well, Giotto is awesome but so too is Nature. As to the flooded crypt, changes to the water table in the area have made this an inevitable fact too, and not much can be done or probably should be done. It has been flooded for at least 100years, and the crypt may even have been planned to absorb such flood waters originally. Capilliary action does not reach so far up the walls as to endanger the frescoes in the Chapel above, which seem to have adapted to the water's presence over the centuries and are stable in this respect at least. More immediate dangers have arisen from the great wafts of humidity, dust and warm air which enter the Chapel each time the door is opened, causing the damage which has been evident in the Last Judgement above the door for at least two hundred years. Closing the door, installing a glass vestibule at the old side entrance (closed 200years ago) with an air-filtration system, and limiting entrants to 20 at a time, will do much to prevent the worsening of the problem, and is a solution which has been called for for these past 30years. As far as I could see when I was last there, the new vestibule is a very lightweight and largely freestanding structure. The present admin has also installed low-wattage daylight-imitation bulbs and reopened ventilation holes in the roof that were closed during the 1963/4 idiocy. It has also sealed leaky 19thC window frames. Further steps could certainly help more; rerouting traffic in the area, possibly even building a replica (like some of the prehistoric French cave painting sites) to siphon off the tourists. Scare stories don't help to support the efforts of a well-meaning administration which is already hampered by lack of funds and crippling fear of international criticism from people who should know better. Laura Jacobus %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%