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A restaurant with an imaginative menu and a vast wine list. Try the Bigoli all’arna (spaghetti with duck sauce).

Inviting pastry shop lined with tantalizing almond and chocolate delicacies, and special goodies such as the dove-shaped Colomba cake at Easter.

Formerly guest quarters, these are extant “wings” of a 17th-century villa, whose main body was demolished in 1908. Close by are locks on the Brenta waterway, excavated over centuries to divert the river away from the lagoon and eliminate silting.

Popularly referred to as “il Santo”, Padua’s revered site of pilgrimage was built in the 13th century to safeguard the mortal remains of St Anthony, a Franciscan monk and miracle worker from Portugal. Worshippers visit his gleaming tomb, encircled by burning candles, but his tongue is guarded in an intricate reliquary in the Treasury, recently recovered after being stolen. In architectural terms the basilica blends Romanesque, Gothic, Islamic and Byzantine elements with elegant arched loggias, minarets and domes, and is a treasure trove of art works by Sansovino, Tiepolo and Titian (see Titian (Tiziano Vecellio)).

The original lectern where Galileo Galilei held his lessons between 1592 and 1610 can be seen on the guided tour of Padua’s historic university, founded in 1222 and second only to Bologna as Italy’s oldest. The institution boasts the world’s first anatomy theatre (1594) where dissections had to be carried out in great secrecy as the church forbade such practices. Other illustrious scholars of the university have included astronomer Copernicus (1473–1543), Gabriel Fallopius (1523–62), who discovered the function of the Fallopian tubes, and Elena Lucrezia Corner Piscopia, the world’s first woman graduate (see Elena Lucrezia Corner Piscopia).

Renowned restaurant that dates back to 1890 and holds 2,500 wines in its cellar. Food-wise, the favourite is pastissada de caval , a spicy stew.

Right across from the Arena, this well-reputed self-service Italian chain restaurant offers a vast variety of meats, cheeses and vegetable dishes.

This stylish café can be found in a quiet historic square surrounded by graceful palaces. The place to be seen, sipping tea amid potted palms and cane chairs.

This 1831 Neo-Classical coffee house was long known as the “café without doors” because it never closed. Liberals of the 19th century would meet and argue here, though today, after a renovation, it’s rather quiet.