Padua, Veneto
Overview
Discover Padua: Private Tours, Experiences & Custom Travel
The origins of Padua also knows as Padova can be traced back over 3000 years of history. One of the most important cities in both Roman and Medieval times, its Medieval historic city center remains almost perfectly intact. Padua was once a flourishing center of humanist and Renaissance culture. The presence of illustrious names such as Francesco Petrarca and Galileo Galilei can still be felt today, and there are many works by Donatello, Titian and Veronese to be admired.
Visit Italy's second oldest university founded in the 13th century by a group of academics and students from the University of Bologna who were in search of greater academic freedom. Visitors are shown the lecture hall where Galileo started his career before all the trouble with Rome. The university later became famous for its medical teachings and carried out the country's first dissections, in the anatomical theater, which can still be visited today.
The university also has the world's oldest botanical gardens. Today, as well as the historical gardens with their collection of medicinal and poisonous plants, modern greenhouses, powered by green energy, house an extensive collection of tropical plants.
Other places to visit: the Museum of Applied and Decorative Arts, the Amento and Donato Sartori International Mask Museum, and the Minici Zotti Pre-cinema Collection Museum. There are enchanting Villas and Castles such as Villa Selvatico Sartori, Villa Elmo Capodilista and Villa Contarini. Padua is likened to Venice for its web of navigable canals, along the Brenta River, from Padua to Battaglia and Monselice, from Padua to Saccolongo and from Pontelongo to Chioggia.
The surrounding area is of great natural and manmade beauty, from the Euganei Hills to the Ecclesiastical buildings such as the Monteortone Sanctuary and the Benedettina Abbey of Praglia.
Our own photographs
Padua Through Our Eyes
Photographed during our own travels and research, these images follow the journey through Padua, from the first view of the landscape to the small details that give the place its character.
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Getting here
The Road to Padua
Most of our guests arrive by private car, with a driver who knows these roads and where it is worth stopping along the way. These are the journeys we arrange most often.
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In their words
Stories That Stay With You
Here's what our guests share about their unforgettable journeys
From the journal
IVS Magazine
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1 October 2026
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