Today we want to show you another great city of North Italy, Padua (Padova). Is sits between it’s popular Veneto sister cities, Venice and Verona, so many people don’t even know that Padova is a great option and a treasure of a city to visit. Not only is it one of the oldest cities in Italy, it has some of the biggest, oldests records. One of which is the Padova University, one of the oldest in the world, oldest botanic garden in the world, largest plaza in Italy, plus many more wonderful things.
In today’s video we want to give you peak at Padova and what you expect when you visit this city, which is very underrated!
1. **Historical Significance**: Padua is one of the oldest cities in Italy, with origins tracing back to the Padovans in 1183 BC.
2. **University of Padua**: Founded in 1222, it’s the second-oldest university in Italy and was where Galileo Galilei lectured.
3. **Scrovegni Chapel**: Houses Giotto’s frescoes, considered to be a masterpiece of Western art.
4. **Prato della Valle**: Italy’s largest square, featuring a central island surrounded by a moat and statues of notable individuals.
5. **Basilica of Saint Anthony**: A pilgrimage site for people from all over the world, containing the tomb of Saint Anthony of Padua.
6. **Botanical Garden**: The world’s oldest academic botanical garden, established in 1545, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
7. **Palazzo della Ragione**: A medieval town hall with a stunning interior covered by one of the largest roof unsupported by columns in Europe.
8. **Astronomical Clock of Padua**: Located in Piazza dei Signori, it’s one of the oldest working clocks in the world.
9. **Caffè Pedrocchi**: Opened in 1831, it’s known as the “café without doors” for its policy of staying open day and night until 1916.
10. **Riviera del Brenta**: A picturesque area with beautiful villas along the Brenta River, once summer homes for Venetian nobility.
11. **Orto Botanico di Padova**: The botanical garden is home to a diverse range of plants and a greenhouse complex called the Biodiversity Garden.
12. **Padua’s Markets**: The city’s markets, especially in Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza della Frutta, are vibrant and offer a variety of local produce.
13. **Frescoes by Giotto**: Aside from the Scrovegni Chapel, Giotto’s work can also be found in other churches in Padua.
14. **Anatomical Theatre**: The University of Padua houses the oldest surviving anatomical theatre in the world, built in 1594.
15. **Saint Anthony’s Feast Day**: Celebrated on June 13th with a procession and festivity in honor of the city’s patron saint.
16. **Art and Culture**: Padua has a rich cultural scene with numerous galleries, museums, and theaters.
17. **Specola Observatory Tower**: Part of the old castle of Padua, now a center for astronomical observations.
18. **Padua’s Arcaded Streets**: The city is known for its charming arcaded streets that provide beautiful walkways.
19. **Bigoli con l’anatra**: A traditional Paduan pasta dish served with a rich duck sauce.
20. **Spritz**: While popular all over Italy, this aperitif has deep roots in the Veneto region, with Padua being no exception.
21. **Sant’Antonio’s relics**: The Basilica of Saint Anthony houses numerous relics of the saint, drawing visitors for their spiritual significance.
22. **Padova Urbs Picta**: This project highlights the city’s fresco cycles from the 14th century, showcasing its rich artistic heritage.
23. **Zaleti**: Traditional Venetian biscuits made with cornmeal and raisins, often enjoyed in Padua as well.
24. **Grappa**: A potent grape-based brandy that is popular in the region, with many local variations to try.
25. **Paduan Cuisine**: Known for its simple yet flavorful dishes, including risottos, polenta, and seafood from the nearby Venetian lagoon.
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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:59 Padova first impressions
01:37 Pedrocchi Cafe
04:09 Piazza della frutta
05:07 Ragione Palace
06:36 Why visit smaller cities in Italy?
07:35 Torre dell’Orologio
08:11 Streets of Padova
09:30 Wine and Cicchetti
12:55 University of Padua/ Palazzo Bo
14:34 Prato della Valle
15:26 Padua Botanical Garden
16:19 The Basilica of St. Anthony
17:35 Lunch in Padova
22:21 Scrovegni Chapel (fail)
22:42 Closing thoughts, painful ending
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We’re back with another video to show you more of the smaller places in Italy I say small but this place is actually not that small because it’s got about 200,000 people yeah so today
We’re here in the town of Piva which is in the Frei area of Italy Vana so we’re here in Padova again another town that’s not that far away from Venice if you happen to be in the area
Definitely this might be a place in to check out new city New Adventures you know what’s first though what’s that coffee coffee always a must here in Italy first impressions of poova so far you will park on the outside of the city or if you’re taking the train everything’s
Like on the outside of the city and you will be walking a lot so this is a super old city it’s actually one of the oldest ones also in Italy I think it’s like 3,000 years
Old so we’ve gotten closer to to the city center like the old city center and do you know what the city reminds me of right now what’s that Paris uh is it the graffiti there’s some graffiti yes but
No like a lot of the buildings like they’re very they just remind me of the like the Parisian like classic archways and the style like from what I remember but it looks like the balcony right there
You can see behind me it just right now like the first impressions it it kind of feels like Paris almost yeah we’ve also been to a lot of towns in this area and I don’t think that I’ve seen a lot
Of the architecture that looks like this it does it does kind of look a little French yeah maybe there’s some sort of an influence that we didn’t look up before we got here damn look at this Cafe
This looks like something some Roman Emperor was drinking coffee at like 2,000 years ago I mean the city is old right we said it was like 3,000 years old so hopefully the coffee isn’t that old either hopefully it’s fresh so actually it was pretty cool I don’t know if we’re just really really
Early but we did get a table right away which is kind of nice it’s a cafe and not a lot of cafes in Italy have like table service so the guy sat us down and gave us these two menus that are supposed
To look like newspapers of so the service here is actually pretty good I guess because as I was talking the guy kind of came by really quickly we didn’t expect that normally they take a long time
To come buy but yeah so the the menus look like a a newspaper I guess and we actually just went with their specialty coffee which is about €6 it’s kind of expensive but this place is from 1831 and
The interior definitely reflects that Cafe looks really really old it kind of looks like you’re stepping back in time a couple hundred years so it’s pretty awesome so it also appears that this is a cafe that had some big influence back in the day a lot of the important businessmen and bankers
And stuff like that used to come here kind of reminiscent of that cafe that we went to in Venice Cafe floran which is in the center or the St Mark Square now I guess the difference between this one
And that one is this one’s a little bit younger than that one but that one is a lot more expensive and a lot more touristy so it’s very difficult to get a table there and when you do you’re going to
Be spending like 50 just for a couple of coffees and some pastries so so we just went with like the mushroom and Pudo Coco sandwich and then they love like these uh crustless sandwiches in Italy
I’ve actually never had one let’s see if they’re worth the hype the bread almost like melts in your mouth but it’s like nothing special but it’s I would rate it like a solid seven out of 10 for
Sandwiches I’ve had not bad not bad doesn’t compare to the good um panin paninis we had in Florence though o with the petta we also got our coffee here he said not to put sugar in this
Coffee from what I understood and when you look down on this coffee it’s got like cacao on top and something green which I’m not sure if that’s their specialty or what we don’t know much about
This coffee we just kind of go with the flow and explore the city but let’s give it a taste test is it mint it looks like mint so I’m not going to say any more about the coffee
I’m going to let Vernon try the coffee I’m going to take a guess no no just try the coffee first so yeah go ahead give that a try it’s like mint ice cream I think I think it’s it’s mint ice cream it’s very subtle then yeah it’s really good but it’s
Very refresh like I no wonder he said don’t put any sugar inside oh my God it’s very sweet for sure what did you think about that Cafe it was uh it was pretty cool I mean like I said earlier you
Don’t see a lot of cafes that are 150 almost 200 years old even if it is going to be a little bit more uh it wasn’t too bad cuz it was €20 and we had like cookies we had two sandwiches we
Had chips we had two of their like specialty coffees and for €20 I mean like it’s more than an average Cafe and remember you don’t really pay a tip here in ity so that’s that adds to it just
Like a random Palace right inside of your uh 3,000 year old city yeah so on the bottom we have little shops which it looks like half of them are still closed cuz we’re always early and on top there’s like a museum and stuff you can check out wow so down here that’s a
Really cool seafood restaurant underneath the palace oh there’s a lot of restaurants Wow it actually looks a lot like this is where some sort of Market would be maybe maybe not on Sundays but
Who knows don’t go that way that was a that was the exit go the other way it’s on the opposite side what do you think about this grand hall I don’t know it looks like a giant ship some
Kind of like no AR or something ship yeah cuz the roof has that Peak there’s a ton of Windows I want to know how they put the windows up there because that’s pretty impressive yeah especially I think this was constructed 1218 12 back then building this I can’t
Imagine the ladders were too sophisticated I’m guessing if you fell that was probably it I don’t think the camera quite captures how big this place is it’s huge just reminds me of those giant like GA gathering Halls you see in video games Skyrim everything we
Do in Italy reminds me of Skyrim I need to like update that game look at the horse’s nuts what do you think about The Palazo um it’s cool as it is I don’t know if it was worth €8 8 each each
So that’s € 16 total which is about $16 almost the room is cool the horse was kind of cool but I don’t really think there was anything else in there it was mainly kind of just to check it out
There wasn’t like actual individual exhibits in there I mean it was nice but I don’t know if it was worth the price and we go to a lot of places every weekend now where there’s like castles and
Pazos and museums and a lot of those are €8 each and there’s a ton more stuff in those so one of the things I think we kind of want to show on this channel is the fact that you can travel to
Lesser known towns and cities in Italy that are just as beautiful if not more beautiful without like literally any tourists like we’re in a huge City or 200,000 people you said yep and there’s like literally only Italians I think we heard few slovenians uh but yeah there’s like no tourists
Yeah a lot of these cities are are cities that most people around the world have never even heard of and they have tons and tons of people so like for example Florence has about 300,000 people this has only onethird less than that two 200,000 and this is probably a city that most of
You have never even heard of I’m really surprised that how many people actually here actually speak English so if you’re coming here with the worry that I have to only go to the touristy places because that’s where people speak English no but a lot of them speak English around here yeah I
Mean they have the same shops if not better they have the museums they have so many churches I was just telling Vernon when you look at the map the amount of like old Cathedrals and historic landmarks in this city are incredible so this is one of the uh interesting landmarks in this PIAA
And this is what I thought the clock in Prague was going to look like but if you have ever been to Prague the one there is just it’s like a third of the size of this one a third of the size and
A 100 times more tourists standing in front of it it’s kind of surreal because when we were there at just towards the sunset time like 4:30 5: p.m. it was like thousands and thousands of people right
In just front of this one small clock so this one tells you the time just like that one does it has horoscope it’s not as sophisticated as my Apple watch but it’s probably more accurate sometimes
It probably works more often I know I compared the city earlier to Paris and I still stand by it but once you get inside like more of the old city it literally reminds me also of Florence like that’s
What I mean like there’s a lot of these like beautiful cities that people don’t travel to that if you really want to go like off the beaten path like poova it’s beautiful it’s literally like Florence but maybe even better it’s Sunday we got to stop going to these cities on Sunday but it’s
Sunday so a lot of things are closed and that’s one of the things I actually like about Italy is Sundays a lot of things are more like for family so you’re supposed to hang out with your friends
And family and not really work uh it’s great for the locals but it’s terrible I guess if you’re traveling I think driving here and living here would totally be a pain in the butt imagine like
Trying to find parking or if you’re having like a party you have friends come over like I don’t know exactly how they decide where parking is in Italy it just seems to be wherever somebody wants to park because we’re clearly in a place where maybe cars can get through but this guy
Over here decided he’s just going to leave his car there but he can’t drive forward because it’s blocked off so you have to he has to do a 27o turn or something like that just be able
To get unless he’s going to just drive backwards I mean we’ve seen it here it seems like there’s like no rules when it comes to driving this seems like it’s a scooter City it’s a very good Scooter City
Or bike City I mean the cobblestones don’t help with that but it definitely seems like it’s scoter City so whenever we go out to a place like Vernon will pick something I’ll pick something so I was picking the little snacks the little chetti food and Vernon was picking the wine and he’s
Like what kind of wine do you want like surprise me so you know how Vernon surprised me he got me a French wine that’s that’s that’s uh that’s how well I can read uh languages other than English
Right so I I looked at it I was like oh that doesn’t sound I didn’t think that that sounded French it’s just o it’s very different it’s very earthy and very acidic I got this one this orange one interesting color yeah technically it’s a white wine at least that one’s Italian this one
Tastes like it could be beer really let me try that wow it smells so sweet this was the most unusual wine I think I’ve ever had yeah it looks like wine I mean looks like beer looks like yeah
Kind of actually let me try yours wow that is very clean and very soft yeah I will say that we’re probably going to get downloads for from Italians for ordering French wine in Italy but oh well at least we’re getting the chetti they’re Italian I want to try this like chicken nugget
Looking one it does look like chicken nuggets like an onion ring and a chicken nugget had a baby wa this uh definitely tasted like a high-end chicken nugget it it’s actually pretty good I’m not going to lie it’s on this piece of bread so it’s it’s kind of strange
It’s like I thought that the uh the breading as is the bread but you got Bread on bread it’s pretty good it’s really really hot though so we got to be careful you don’t want to try the
Fish so I think this is he said is the tuna one I’m going to separate them cuz I just want to try this but like this is one of my favorite foods like the little tapa style the bakara
The chetti so addictive it’s kind of cool because you know that it’s Italy has really really good food obviously it’s a known fact but this to try a bunch of different things that they make
Instead of being stuck to just one pasta dish you get to try like six or seven different ones and and still not be full so you can go from bar to bar doing the same thing and they’re very cheap
Usually they’re like a year or two Max so as I was drinking my French wine that Vernon got me we saw that this little bar has the P OFA beer we’re not huge beer people but you know went
In poova everyone thinks you know Germany has and Austria has the good beer but Italy I know already the Italy has got some good beer here especially Sicily that was all foam I taste ooh it’s good that’s a very nice light beer this is like the perfect summer beer like you want
To have this at your barbecue with some shish kebab some rotisserie chicken we’re not huge beer people but this one goes down nicely right yeah that you can definitely taste the Hops and aftertaste I don’t know if this is like an IPA or something but there’s definitely some hops
There at the end but it’s smooth like I would drink this like I would drink this again all right I’m curious now so how much would you guys pay for all of that so we had two glasses of wine
One beer and five of the little chetti which are like the Tapas or the orves so all of that was just over €20 which is about $20 here and I think that’s probably worth it because in Venice
If you’re going to try to get something like that it’s probably going to be a lot more than that so this is the University of pava which is one of the oldest universities in the world it’s from like the 1200s and I guess they had some pretty famous professors
Here from a long long time ago one of which was Galileo I guess this is the University that he used to teach at now we’re going to check out another Palace which I guess is inside the University of Poa which is interesting very unique for our University
I wish I came here but let’s see what € 10 EUR each gets you if it’s worth the money so you can say this was a very good University because some of their students like apricus in Galileo went on to be quite
Successful what did you think about the University of poova so uh this was definitely way more worth it than the other thing that we saw earlier and you get to see a ton of History we get to see like
These really old busts and rooms that people like Galileo uh taught in and cernus wasn’t student of um this is one of the really cool Hallmarks of this city I think this definitely is a unique place to check out the fact that they literally have a piece of Galileo spine which
I had no idea was here so we actually had to look it up uh thanks to Chad GPT what it said in Latin so nearly every city in Italy or Europe in general has these big squares in the middle
Of them this is a lot of times where people get together gather they have shops and little markets and things like that and this actually is the biggest one in all of Italy and one of the biggest in Europe so if you’re looking to stretch your legs after
Walking through those narrow little streets and you want to get some exercise check out these squares because they always have a lot of really cool stuff this one in particular has a lot of statues of famous people all around it I noticed one of the things we
Seem to have luck with is whenever we’re coming to these like cities there is literally always a market so this is what happens when you drink too many sprits and try to bike home I think there’s also a scooter in there oh there’s a few bikes wow so one of the other things
That I really wanted to mention is that padaa actually has the oldest Botanic Gardens in the world I believe it’s from like the 1500s early 1500s but unfortunately when we got here it’s closed it’s winter time so I don’t know if they’re renovating it or if it’s just
Normally closed during the winter but that’s just something we wanted to note and if we ever come back here in a better weather we’re definitely going to show you guys that a few moments later so you know how I mentioned um earlier that pwa has a lot of cathedrals a lot
Of churches to check out well we were looking for a particular one and we thought thought we were heading the right way cuz it looked like that church from far away but when we got there
Turns out it’s a whole other church so now we have to walk 10 minutes the other direction for the actual church we want to see so earlier we told you how cool that square is being one of
The largest in Europe uh but now we have to walk to the other side of it which is not so cool that had to be probably one of the most beautiful Grand just wow churches I’ve ever been through in
My life yeah I think the only one that kind of Rivals that that we’ve seen so far is the one in Vatican City which is St Peters this church is massive it’s free so you don’t have to pay
Anything to get in there’s a lot of people inside there I guess St Anthony is a is a pretty popular Saint with Catholics so this this church is the uh where he is actually buried so you can go and visit his tomb what was he known for do you remember yeah he’s the
Patron saint of lost or stolen articles but as far as I remember reading also here is he was also known for his teachings his preachings and he was uh known for like um healing and miraculous healing so when you go near his tomb you’ll see dozens hundreds of pictures
Of uh kids especially of people kind of asking for prayers to help heal their relatives and I guess this is also like a very uh very popular very like for Catholics a place for like pilgrimage so I think we found the most adventurous restaurant yet they have things such as
Pork cheeks with red wine and graa they have donkey uh sopressa which is like donkey sausage they have cuttlefish they have some interesting pickle things with Gorgonzola so ver and I are going to get a little adventurous and step outside a comfort zone and try some local
Favorites here so this is definitely a little bit more adventurous than we used to um right now I’m going to try some beef tongue I don’t think I’ve ever had beef tongue before or if I
Did I must have been too young to remember so I want to see what this is like smells like Boney First Impressions with horseradish so it’s beef time with HSE radish cuz that can smell the HSE radish is definitely there it kind of tastes like Maloney I don’t know any other way
Of putting it it’s not like low quality baloney but like imagine if you elevated Oscar Meer balone up a couple notches it’s it’s it’s good I don’t hate it it’s just something I’ve never had before yeah I don’t think I’ve ever had beef tongue in my adult
Life at least the waitress said to drizzle a little bit of olive oil on top of this she said a little bit but it’s Italy so it’s okay to go a little extra and a little bit of
Salt okay it’s a little dark in here so it’s kind of hard to see but let’s see the beef Tong I see what you mean how it tastes like baloney but it tastes like very fancy mortadella that’s another one I didn’t think about that comparing it to something more like if you
Never had balone but yeah it’s very delicate very sweet it just like melts in your mouth but with olive oil I see what she means it’s very nice um it’s not gy or chewy at all 10 out of 10 I
Should also point out that the wine that we got this time is definitely Italian we didn’t get any french wines so this looks like they put everything in the kitchen on one plate this is the chicken leg with palenta some kind of a graa pork belly you can see that inside of there
And it looks amazing it looks like it’s so so tender right now so I’m going to go ahead and try this looks extremely hot I feel the heat off of mine I don’t think that was pork belly I think those were carrots but um no it’s really really
Good this is the pork belly oh my God yeah there’s a lot going on in your place it looks very very hearty it is you don’t even have to use both hands to eat it it’s so soft I’m going to have something I don’t think I’ve ever had which is donkey
So this is donkey stew with palenta I’m going to get a nice big chunk of donkey I feel bad eating this because they’re so cute but I’m also very curious what donkey tastes like it is a very hearty meat it feels almost like like dark meat like dark like duck breast
You know if you compare duck breast to chicken breast it has kind of that gamier taste it’s definitely tougher than beef uh I don’t know if a lot of people had horse definitely similar to horse we had that in a Mongolian restaurant but it’s definitely more like uh it’s not as tender
As beef so I imagine this was probably cooked for even longer than you would cook traditional beef stew it’s very good it’s very they put a lot of herbs onto this there’s a lot of onions some type of sauce but this is delicious it’s definitely very unique that was the heartiest
Meal I think I’ve had this year it’s so it’s actually kind of dangerous in a way because the food was very heavy we had some red wine the ambient lighting was really really low it was extremely cozy yeah so I can imagine if we just left right now and we started
Driving home we’d probably fall asleep in the car on the way to get there but another thing I was telling Vernon I think we want to kind of show cuz a lot of people have The
Stereotype that all Italians eat is pizza and pasta and I think we have yet to eat pizza on this channel I think we had pasta cuz there’s so much good pasta uh but yeah like there’s a lot of different foods in these 20 regions that we will show you so definitely stay
Tuned for that and not to be a stereotype but we probably are saving the pizza for Naples oo yes so I guess we pushed our luck a little too far today we wanted to check out this thing called the Screven Chapel which had these really famous Fresco by this guy named geodo
Who lived a long long time ago I think they’re from like the 13 or 1400s but unfortunately I guess we had to book them in advance because we tried to go get two tickets for them and they were totally sold out until the evening so we’re going to have to skip those unfortunately
I think that’s going to be it for us for today and for pwa I am exhausted and I’m pretty sure I sprained my ankle I always say we’re comfortable shoes and I did but the little Cobble streets I
Think they got my left foot cuz I’m going to be limping home right now but hopefully you enjoyed today’s little adventure and we’re so happy to share with you another piece of of Italy that
A lot of people don’t get to see all right so that’s it for us today see you next time ciao
8 Comments
Would you visit this awesome city? There is so much to do in the city and in the Veneto region.
Oh, siete arrivati nella mia città
The architectural style you think is French, it's actually Italian baroque. An even bigger example is Turin that is very similar to Paris.
Hello ,new subscriber here.I'm actually from Padova,and although I think it has a more than decent cultural offer,it's often overlooked (expect by people that exploit it as a base to go to Venice since it's just 20 min by train) so thank you for showing other sides of Italy…😀.The main university building you visited ,Palazzo Bo',it is the administrative building(where the chancellor reside) and also the one which hosts the Faculty of Law.Other places which are notable ,in case you will want to explore the area again in the future ,are the Musme(museum of medicine,Padova it's still known today for the Faculty) and Villa Giusti(the villa itself it's nothing remarkable but it's the place where the armistice of the first World War was signed,and there is really interesting stuff and memorabilia inside).I you plan to visit other area of northern Italy ,and you like relatively unbeaten town I suggest you Parma,Ravenna and Bergamo(that's a gem),and of course Turin and Bologna but those are big and relatively famous
Italian Baroque was copied by everybody French included!
Hi ! Your videos are amazing. In Veneto I recommend you also visit Vicenza. It is worth it.
Love Padova. That's where I studied. Also check Vicenza, Bassano and Asolo. Veneto is full of undiscovered (and underrated) gems.
The botanical garden.