{"id":41969,"date":"2026-08-24T08:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T08:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/41969\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T08:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T08:38:11","slug":"art-saints-galileo-italys-padua-30-minutes-from-venice-offers-a-quiet-alternative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/41969\/","title":{"rendered":"Art, saints, Galileo: Italy\u2019s Padua, 30 minutes from Venice, offers a quiet alternative"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">My disdain for Venice has been the subject of lively conversations with friends and family.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, its picturesque bridges over canals that criss-cross the town are romantic. Yes, it is the birthplace of the modern printing press and a historic melting pot of cultures influenced by significant trade routes. But stopping in Venice also means fighting crowds from cruise ships, <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/travel-leisure\/article\/3233547\/venice-start-charging-day-trippers-entry-fee-2024-why-how-much-will-it-be-and-who-exempt?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">paying daily entry fees to breathe its decadence<\/a> and facing hugely inflated prices for subpar meals.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Instead, Padua is less than a 30-minute train ride away.<\/p>\n<p>As the setting for <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/postmag\/culture\/article\/3307776\/rare-editions-shakespeares-plays-could-fetch-us6-million-auction?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">William Shakespeare\u2019s<\/a> The Taming of the Shrew and the birthplace of influential Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, Padua \u2013 Padova in Italian \u2013 is close enough to Venice, Vicenza and Verona for easy day trips to explore the Veneto region.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">On a Trenitalia train heading to the city, we struck up a conversation with a British couple. They raved about their recent stay in Padua, adding that its consistent swell of university students gave it an eternal youthfulness and made it one of the country\u2019s most dynamic cities.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cOf course you will see the Giotto frescoes,\u201d said the lady, referring to Italian painter Giotto\u2019s early 14th century collection of 38 paintings found at Scrovegni Chapel that depict scenes in the life of Jesus, his parents and grandparents, as well as his interpretation of The Last Judgment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"My disdain for Venice has been the subject of lively conversations with friends and family. Yes, its picturesque&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[27541,27542,27548,27546,27545,27549,5,27536,9489,27547,27537,27543,27538,14657,27540,27544,614,27539,933],"class_list":["post-41969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italy","tag-antica-osteria-dal-capo","tag-basilica-of-st-anthony","tag-chapel-of-the-reliquaries","tag-donatello","tag-galileo","tag-giotto","tag-italy","tag-padova","tag-padua","tag-palazzo-della-ragione","tag-piazza-della-frutta","tag-piazza-delle-erbe","tag-pope-gregory-ix","tag-pride-parade","tag-scrovegni-chapel","tag-st-anthony","tag-travel","tag-university-of-padua","tag-venice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}