Welcome to this beautiful Venetian City….
Today I am sharing some special details about this historic Venetian city. From Unesco World Heritage sites, historic landmark cafes to pilgrimage places, Venetian canals, the birth of spritz and the many architectural surprises, warning you may not want to leave.
Random beautiful details on the city of Padova in the Veneto:
In English, we say Padua.
*In the region of the Veneto there are seven provinces - Venezia (Venice), Verona, Vicenza, Treviso, Belluno, Rovigo and Padova (Padua)
*Padua is certainly on the map if you a fan of Giotto because of the Cappella degli Scrovegni. The Lonely Planet guide describes the small chapel in the north of Italy as Padua’s version of the Sistine Chapel. So there you go, they could be right!
Built over ruins of an ancient Roman amphitheatre, the area is called the ‘arena chapel’. Giotto was working in Padua over at the Basilica of Saint Anthony when the wealthy local financier Enrico Scrovegni had a vision of a grand palace, villa and chapel over the Roman arena. He requested the talented Giotto, the Florentine artist be the one to decorate the church where he planned to be buried with his wife Jacopina d’Este. This commission of the fresco cycle by revered Tuscan artist Giotto di Bondone was in memory of Scrovegni’s father who had been denied a Christian burial (this is another fascinating story). The church is dedicated to Santa Maria della Carità.
A ticket to see The Last Judgement allows you to enter the Museo Civico also known as the Eremitani next door where you can see more art and historical artefacts. Be aware there are limited numbers inside the chapel (a nice thing) - it is also timed and a temperature controlled room.
*One thing I love about this city is everyone moves about on bicycles and the delight of the cafe life. Padova boasts magnificent cafes under grand columns and loggias. The neo classical and Venetian Gothic Caffe Pedrocchi is an elegant place to stop and rest after a day exploring the city. The cafe has a vast history and is well known for visitors of literary talents like Stendal, Dario Fo, Hemingway and Lord Byron to name but a few.
Founded in the 18th century by Francesco Pedrocchi and his son Anthony, the cafe has evolved and become a cultural icon of the city. A Gothic beauty in the centro storico of Padova, this first coffee house was open to the artists and writers offering signature coffees and pastries developed over time. Historically it was the landmark location for the 1848 riots against the Habsburg Monarchy. Padua just like Venice was ruled by the Austrian Empire for a time, the revolution for Italian independence of the Veneto has roots in this city. It would take another 20 years for the Veneto to find its way back into the arms of Italy (1866), five years after the pivotal Risorgimento.
*The University of Padova was founded in 1222 by a bunch of students and teachers from Bologna, a few hours away in Emilia Romagna. The University of Padua is the second oldest university in Italy. These scholars sought intellectual freedom to reinvent education on their terms, libertas scholastica. About a 1000 scholars left Bologna for a new beginning in Padova. In the beginning these studious pioneering rebels taught Theology and Law.
Since the 13th century the university has enrolled the likes of many a controversial and intellectual thinker, such greats as Galileo, Casanova, and Copernicus. Padua not only considered intellectual freedom imperative but rallied for religious tolerance, since back in the day one had to be a Catholic in order to get out the other side with a degree in hand. And most importantly, Padua University holds the banner for the world’s first female Doctor of Philosophy. In 1678 the first female graduate was Eleonora Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia.
Piscopia is an important model for women academics and her statue can be found at the university. You can do a guided tour, the people also like to visit Galileo’s Anatomical Theatre in the historic Palazzo Bo.
*Many of you know in Northern Italy that an Aperol Spritz is homogenous with everyday life, yet #spritzlife is more a recent global sensation with campaigns all over for the bittersweet orange aperitivo. In Italy digestive bitters are essential to a comfortable and willing stomach. It is best to be prepared the Italian way.
In 1919 two brothers from Padua, Silvio and Luigi Barbieri created the cult flavour of apero - Aperol. Eventually Brand Campari bought out the company and built the empire. Notably, when I was last visiting in 2022 I paid only four Euros for an Aperol Spritz and a bowl of crisps. This is obviously another reason to get yourself to Padua if you ask me!
While Padua was under the reign of the Austrian Empire the locals would add soda water to the wine, it was called a spritzer. Some found the Venetian wine unpalatable and diluted the vino with bubbly water, a bit like a German beer. Spritzen means to splash or squirt. This explains much in terms of the word spritz, not sounding all that Italiano, considering its iconic status on tables all over Italy.
*One of the big treats in Padua is the markets. First you can stop at one of the many lively cafes that dominate the many squares, take an espresso and brioche with zabaione in the centre and then roam the cobbled streets. The outdoor markets can be found in Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza dei Frutti. There you will find real markets, the fruit and vegetables kind and the one where you might pick up a white coat for eight Euros (like I did), this is a traditional Italian market for the locals.
These markets are lined by elegant cafes and magnificent Palazzos. You can visit the 12th century Palazzo della Ragione. The salone boasts a magnificent fresco cycle and more of that Unesco World Heritage detail that is nice to see off the beaten path in Italy. Perhaps I write my next book sitting at a table in a piazza in Padua (food for thought)…
*If you have lost something dear to your heart or you need serious healing Saint Anthony of Padua has your back. The grand Basilica of Saint Anthony itself is a true vision, and worthy of a visit just to see for yourself. Outside Romanesque in architecture with Byzantine domes, inside Gothic and wonderfully regal. It is known for the Baroque style chapel of relics that are on view. If interested in seeing the body parts of revered saints you are in for a treat… fingers, tongues, and other enchanting preserved body parts are there for viewing and perhaps praying upon. Saint Anthony has his own glorious story of love and loss I shared once in a Podcast on this great city. Many on the pilgrimage trail visit to make their offerings and prayers. Note: Saint Anthony is one of my top favourite Italian saints, he is up there with Saint Francesco, Caterina and Chiara.
*Nearby the Prato della Valle, or Il Prato to the locals is a lovely part of the city to ride a bike around or meander about. The space is open and vast and a great place to rest before you visit the Basilica of Saint Anthony. Bordering the large oval square are 78 statues. There were 88, but Napoleon considered them beneficial to his art collection and knocked off 10. The statues celebrate the intellectual and spiritual leaders of the city. Indeed they are all great men, ‘the statues represent the illustrious sons of the city by birth or adoption”.
*Visit the Orto Botanico di Padova. You might remember Monty Don the wonderful British gardener making a beeline for the medieval giardino in his documentary series on Italian Gardens, the first stop was Padua for the University’s medical faculty of rare and medicinal gardens that were planted in 1545. The gardens are still attended for research for the university to this day. The botanical collection is vast, the collections include 600,000 seeds, pods, herbs and exotic plant varieties. You can visit and buy a ticket for a tour if you would like to know more.
Something else beautiful to contemplate…
*American Artist Julian Schnabel had his own creative epiphany while visiting the Giotto Fresco cycle in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. Upon seeing the frescoes painted from the floor to the ceiling he realised he must make his works larger, to fill the whole wall. He did just that, something he said Giotto’s artistic legacy inspired.
Schnabel recently co-wrote and filmed the recent epic, In the Hand of Dante that did have a set location in the Venetian city of Padova.
There are a few reasons I am mentioning Padova as a beautiful possibility (And there is more history to know I might add). One, it is on the same train line from Milano to Venice (and 40 minutes away from Venice) and it is a city that is not over crowded. If looking to do some sustainable kind of tourism you can take your time and visit Padua. It is also the gate way to the Prosecco region and a grand city with so much to offer the curious visitor. I cannot wait to return again.
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You signed off from the Pedrocchi, and that address hides the most radical thing an Italian hospitality business has ever done. For most of the nineteenth century it was known as the cafe with no doors: open day and night, so that a person could sit inside without ordering. That is a far bigger statement than any Liberty interior, and no bar in Italy would attempt it today, because opening hours are now a number written into an authorisation and every hour a room is open is a staffed hour. Which is what I would tell your readers about ambience in general. From inside the trade, most of what a visitor experiences as atmosphere is not design, it is a constraint that hardened into a habit: the hours, the spacing of the tables, the number of covers, whether the seating outside is licensed. When you walk into a place in Padova or in Milan and feel that it has always been that way, you are usually looking at a rule that outlived the reason for it. Your instinct about Padova is right for the same reason: forty minutes away, and it stayed a city that answers to the people who live in it. That is what visitors are actually sensing when they say a place is not touristy.
Esattamente!!