Our guided tour of Padova, recently included in the UNESCO World Heritage list for its large and precious collection of XIV century frescoes, starts at the Caffè Pedrocchi, known as the “caffe without doors” and still a major symbol of Padova.
Our walking tour reaches than the Townhall building, result of an evolution long centuries, where you see a middle ages tower next to byzantine capitals and a renaissance courtyard with elegant staircases, but also XIX century integrating and a main facade accomplished in the 30s.
We’ll enter the “ancient” and the “new” courtyards of Palazzo Bo, the historical university building. The famous University of Padova was founded in 1222, one of the first in Europe and has always been a core institution for the town, and a pilaster of its identity. Still are to be seen the “Aula Magna”, where Galileo Galilei thought as professor, numbers of coat of arms, remembering students and professors of the past, and the statue of Elena Cornaro, the first woman with a university diploma in the world!
The tour leads directly to the traditional market places: Piazza della Erbe and Piazza della Frutta, noisy, coloured and animated crossroads of local life! In between, the great Palazzo della Ragione overloads the market area, a masterpiece of middle-aged architecture holding the largest astrological frescoes cycle in the world.