About the Area
The Veneto Region is not only a district of great interest in itself, it is also the starting point for a wide variety of itineraries, each one offering fascinating opportunities to become more familiar with the history, art, folklore, cuisine and wines of the different communities of the area.
Coming to Italy is in a way like going back to former ages and rediscovering how Science, Literature and the Arts developed through the centuries. A visit to Venice and Padova will show you how the different periods, in particular the Renaissance, left their mark and heritage in terms of architecture, sculptures and paintings.
Venice
Venice doesn't need any introduction: you only have to take a short walk into the maze of tiny narrow streets and across the myriads of bridges to experience its unique atmosphere.
St. Mark's Square, the Doge's Palace, the Rialto Bridge, a myriad of artistic treasures and traditional gondolas make Venice a unique city in the world.
Padova
According to Virgil's Aeneid, the city was founded by the Trojan Antenor. However, more accredited theories have it that Patavium (the ancient name of Padova) began as a fishermen's village founded by an Etruscan-Euganean colony in the marshlands of the Brenta River around the 9th century B.C. With frescoes by Giotto, the anatomical theatre of Galileo Galilei and masterpieces by Donatello, Mantegna and Palladio, Padova offers an interesting review of more than 3000 years of history.
Cappella degli Scrovegni - Giotto
Padova, just like Bologna, Paris, Oxford and Cambridge, has an old University, dating back to 1222, to which it owes its fame as one of the great cultural centres of the Western world. Copernicus, Galileo, Pico della Mirandola, Torquato Tasso, Carlo Goldoni, Ugo Foscolo and Giuseppe Tartini were all pre-eminent scholars at this University. Modern medicine was born here thanks to Gian Battista da Monte, the first in Europe to teach clinical medicine at the patient's bedside.
University's Aula Magna, Palazzo Bo
The first university botanical garden was opened to the public in 1545. This University, which was the first to use the autopsy to advance medical knowledge, also built the first permanent anatomical theatre (1594-5).
Anatomical Theater, Palazzo Bo
| St.Anthony's Church |
Palazzo della Ragione
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Travelling around the area
Abano-Montegrotto Terme
Internationally renowned for their hot springs, Abano and Montegrotto Terme are also the starting point for various artistic and cultural excursions. A fascinating opportunity to get to know the area's art, folklore, traditions and culinary specialities.
Thermal swimming pools
The Euganean Hills
While the itineraries in the hills twist and turn along the panoramic roads and the more than twenty trails with picnic facilities in the Euganean Hills, the historical itineraries include visits to the hermitage of Mount Rua, the Benedictine Abbey of Praglia built in 1124, the Roman and pre-Roman sections of the Este museum and the medieval cities of Montagnana and Arquà Petrarca.
Montagnana
This walled city with its twenty-four towers is one of Europe's most beautiful examples of a small medieval town.
Montagnana - The city walls
Arquà Petrarca still maintains all its old medieval charm. It became quite an important site as the final resting place of the poet Francesco Petrarca.
| Praglia Abbey |
Villa Montecchia
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