The pink lily returns, Padova, Italy. Botanical gardens are something I largely ignored before I started traveling, but now I actively seek them out. It can be magical to discover exotic new species, to marvel at the variety of creation. It's equally pleasurable to be in a foreign place and discover an old friend you've seen in other locales -- pink water lilies I first encountered in the lush gardens of the Alcazar in Cordoba, Spain -- now delight my eye a few weeks later in the botanical garden of Northern Italy's Padova.