We Went to North Italy’s OLDEST City 🇮🇹 | North Italy Travel | Padova

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