My Kind of Place: Padua, Italy

Visiting the birthplace of modern medicine, also home of the world’s oldest botanic garden in Padua, Italy.

Statues and palaces in Prato della Valle, Padua. The most impressive is Palazzo del Bo, which is the university’s main building. Getty Images

Why Padua?

In one spot, it’s gritty. All galumphing, Mussolini-era facades and grey stone. Turn the corner, and it’s gorgeous. Elegant towers by the bubbling river, or giant red-brick palazzi.

Padua stubbornly refuses to fit easy categorisation. That which makes it lively and youthful now – the university that sees the squares fill at night with boisterous, chattering students – also makes it historic. Founded in 1222, and with former professors including Galileo Galilei, it has a near-unrivalled pedigree. It also has a justifiable claim to being the birthplace of modern medicine.

But Padua scores highly on innovation in the arts as well as the sciences. Giotto was working wonders here before Raphael and Michelangelo were born. It’s a city that regularly surprises and impresses – just don’t try to pin it down to one easily pigeonholed character.

A comfortable bed

The Majestic Toscanelli (www.toscanelli.com) is very central, and has a sense of mid-tier grandeur to it. Polished wood floors, mosaic-tiled bathrooms, expensive-looking rugs and big yellow drape curtains are among the flourishes. Double rooms cost from €88 (Dh355).

The Methis Hotel (www.methishotel.it) has a lovely riverside location, and opts for design flair over heritage trappings. Each floor has a different theme – earth, water, sky etc – and that shows through in the colour schemes. This can mean bold blue bathrooms that look like fish tanks, or junior suites with everything in a Starck-esque bright white. Doubles cost from €100 (Dh404).

The Albergo Verdi (www.albergoverdipadova.it) offers simply furnished but bright rooms, with nice touches such as free sweets on the work desk and a communal living room area. Rooms cost from €70 (Dh283), including breakfast.

Find your feet

Kick off at the star attraction, the Cappella degli Scrovegni (www.cappelladegliscrovegni.it), one of the world's great artistic masterpieces. It's not about one particular Giotto fresco – the whole building is covered in them, becoming a giant, singular whole. The scale and the foresight – Giotto was pioneering techniques in the early 14th century that would become standard a century later as the Renaissance arrived – are staggering.

From there, amble through the city centre's squares – the Piazza dei Signori and Piazza delle Erbe are full of life and framed by impressive palazzi. But end at the most impressive palace of them all, the Palazzo del Bo (www.unipd.it). This is the university's main building, and tours take visitors into lavish halls dating from the 16th century.

The icing on the cake, though, is the wooden, funnel-like, deeply claustrophobic Anatomical Theatre. Designed so students could watch human bodies being cut up, it was the first of its kind in 1594.

Meet the locals

Dozens of statues line an encircling moat at Prato della Valle, and cars going around the outside make the square seem like a supersized traffic island. But students come here to hang out, while old men park themselves on benches with books.

Book a table

The Trattoria Ai Porteghi (Via Cesare Battisti) is a gorgeous little spot slightly detached from the main hubbub. With walls and ceiling covered in dark wood, and dishes prepared in front of the diners, there’s a bit of homely flair. Cod prepared four ways will set you back €20 (Dh81).

The dress-to-impress joint Belle Parti (www.ristorantebelleparti.it) has gleaming glasses, white tablecloths and bow-tied waiters under a centuries-old wooden ceiling. The menu is fish-heavy, with decadent seafood platters costing €30 (Dh121).

Shopper’s paradise

The mostly pedestrianised Via San Fermo plays home to the big international Italian designer labels, plus plenty of lesser-known but high-quality fashion brands such as Liu-Jo, Makola and Luisa Spagnoli.

For more of a mixture, try Via Umberto I, where the men’s shirts of Brando rub shoulders with tempting jewellery at L’Arte del Regalo and antiques shops.

What to avoid

The main civic museums next to the Cappella degli Scrovegni (a ticket to the latter also includes entrance to the former). These are OK – expect sprawling collections of occasionally important art and archaeology – but dragged down by poor explanation. If you’re pushed for time, go elsewhere rather than trying to get your money’s worth by traipsing through them.

Don’t miss

The Orto Botanico (www.ortobotanicopd.it) proudly boasts of being the world's first botanic garden. Set up by the university in 1545, the main section is still laid out into segments of medicinal herbs, as it was then. But a 21st-century addition, a giant state-of-the-art greenhouse, is unexpectedly riveting. Displays within tell how humans have learnt to cultivate crops, breeding in mutations to make them bigger. And it also traces how key plant-based commodities such as coffee, bananas, paper and medicinal drugs have spread from their places of origin.

Getting there

Emirates (www.emirates.com) flies from Dubai to Venice from Dh3,235 return. ATVO (www.atvo.it) runs buses from the airport to Mestre station for €8 (Dh32) – they take about 20 minutes. From there, trains (www.trenitalia.com) head to Padua, costing €4.50 (Dh18) and taking about 40 minutes.