Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ACTV's Venezia-Padova Extraurbane bus 53 leaves from Venice's Piazzale Roma about
every half-hour, stopping at key Brenta villages en route to Padua. Local Venice-Padua
train services stop at Dolo (€2.85, 25 minutes, one or two hour). By car, take SS11 from
Mestre-Venezia towards Padua and take the A4 autostrada towards Dolo/Padua.
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Padua
POP 214,900
Though under an hour from Venice, Padua seems a world away with its medieval market-
places, Fascist-era facades and hip student population. As a medieval city-state and home
to Italy's second-oldest university, Padua challenged both Venice and Verona for regional
hegemony. A series of extraordinary fresco cycles recalls this golden age - including Gi-
otto's remarkable Capella degli Scrovegni, Menabuoi's heavenly gathering in the Bapistry
and Titian's St Anthony in the Scoletta del Santo. For the next few centuries Padua and
Verona challenged each other for dominance over the Veneto plains. But Venice finally
settled the matter by occupying Padua permanently in 1405.
As a strategic military-industrial centre, Padua became a parade ground for Mussolini
speeches, an Allied bombing target and a secret Italian Resistance hub based at the uni-
versity. Once Padua was wrested from Fascist control in 1945, there was a new industrial
zone east of the city within a year, the university was back in session and the puzzlework
that is Padua began anew.
