Top Padua Cultural Tours - page 3

We’ll discover Verona with a walk. Starting from Piazza Bra we’ll admire Area di Verona. Through Via Mazzini, well known shopping street in Verona we’ll walk to the House of Juliet. Then we continue towards Piazza delle Erbe, Piazza dei Signori, Porta Borsari and the Arche Scaligere. We'll reach the Ponte di Pietra and, if you want, we can take the funicular and reach the San Pietro hill for a view from above of Verona. After a little lunch stop, we’ll go on to Lake Garda, where we’ll have a walk in the city centre of Lazise. The origins of the novels appear to be Lazise and A, a small village with a clear medieval imprint, characterized by walls, castle, doors and narrow streets.

DEPARTURE FROM PADUA OR ABANO / MONTEGROTTO TERME With this tour in Chioggia we will discover this small seaside town of ancient origins, full of canals, bridges, alleys and pastel-colored houses with typical green balconies that will remind you of Venice, without however the crowds of tourists and without gondolas. The black silhouettes that line the canals of Venice are here replaced by colorful bragozzi, typical fishing boats of the Upper Adriatic characterized by brightly colored sails. IMPORTANT: from November to March and in case of bad weather the boat tour will be replaced by an aperitif with spritz and cicchetti.

The Riviera del Brenta, a well-known waterway between Padua and Venice, is an interesting panoramic area from historical, natural, artistic and cultural point of view. It is a natural extension of the Venice Grand Canal and is flanked by picturesque Venetian villages and surrounded by an agricultural landscape. The Riviera del Brenta has fascinated many important personalities at all times: Casanova, Galileo Galilei, Byron, Montesquieu and D'Annunzio have visited it, Canaletto, Cimaroli and Tiepolo have painted it and it has been praised in the masterpieces of Goldoni and Goethe . The French and Russian royal families, the Habsburgs, the Savoy and even Napoleon stayed here and the Venetian nobility chose it as the setting for their Venetian villas. Here the Venetians built magnificent residences, enclosed by monumental gardens, frescoed and designed by the most important artists of the time such as Palladio, Tiziano and Tintoretto.

DEPARTURE FROM PADUA OR ABANO / MONTEGROTTO TERME Vicenza's golden age began in 1540, when the Venetian aristocracy decided to reorganise the city and its countryside and called Andrea di Pietro della Gondola, known as Palladio, one of the greatest architects of the time, for the arduous task. ‘The city of Vicenza and Palladio's villas in the Veneto region’ have thus been nominated a UNESCO Site for a total of 23 palaces in Vicenza and 24 villas in the surrounding area. The tour will start from the central Piazza dei Signori with its elegant monuments and we will have a stroll around the city, including Corso Palladio the main street of the city. It will not miss the visit to the Basilica Palladiana, a masterpiece by Andrea Palladio (in case of closure we will visit the Church of Santa Corona). Finally we will visit the Sanctuary of the Madonna di Monte Berico, and from the square in front you can admire a fantastic view of the city of Vicenza.

We will take you through the narrow and quiet Venetian streets between the Cannaregio district and the Ancient Jewish Ghetto, the wonderful antiques shop windows and traditional Jewish shops. We will be able to stop and drink an excellent espresso in the small coffee shop in the city that has been using the same recipe for almost a century. We can then head towards the beating heart of Venice in the San Polo and San Marco districts. We will not fail to cross the Rialto Bridge and take a tour of the Rialto Market. We will visit a "hidden place" from which to appreciate a completely exclusive view of the Grand Canal. For lunch, an ancient bacaro hides among the narrow and intricate calli of Venice where you can enjoy excellent traditional Venetian cicchetti. We will reach Piazza San Marco, surrounded by its main buildings and we will arrive at the Bridge of Sighs; finally you can visit the Basilica of San Marco (not included). Afterwards, we will take the ferry boat to reach the rail station.

Travel from Venice to Padua, a neighboring city in the Veneto region. With a local guide, explore the highlights of this charming city, which is filled with piazzas, monuments, gardens, and students. Learn about its past and rich cultural heritage as a hotspot for European artists and writers. You’ll also visit the Pedrocchi Café, which was a hub for the Italian literary crowd.