Orto Botanico di Padova
Founded in 1545 by the University of Padua — making it the oldest continuously operating botanical garden in the world — the Orto Botanico is a Unesco World Heritage Site that most day-trippers walk straight past. Its circular Renaissance layout, a perfect ring of beds inside a round wall, is as beautiful as any formal garden in Italy.
What makes it extraordinary
The garden was created to grow medicinal plants for the university's medical school, and it directly influenced the development of modern botany, pharmacy and ecology — Galileo was a regular visitor when he taught at Padua.
At its centre stands Goethe's Palm, a Chamaerops humilis planted in 1585 that the German poet saw in 1786 and that inspired his theory of plant metamorphosis; it is still alive, now sheltered in a glass greenhouse, and is one of the most historically significant living plants in Europe.
Visiting today
The modern extension beyond the original circular garden contains themed sections on carnivorous plants, aquatic species and a remarkable collection of ancient tree specimens, all beautifully labelled in Italian and English.
April to June is the best time to visit when the medicinal herb beds are in full flower and the wisteria over the central pergola is in bloom. Allow at least 90 minutes.
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