A large portion of Viale delle Terme is for pedestrian use only.  Cars are strictly prohibited.  The street is lined with hotels, shops, and cafés.  Along the street, there are places to rest, with tables and benches, as well as public art. The Hotel Trieste was first opened in 1912.  During WWI, it housed the…

Our next destination was the Hotel President Terme, in the charming town of Abano Terme,  a scant ten kilometers away from Padua.  Train service, from the central station in Padua, is available, and relatively easy to do, considering that it was such a short trip.  However, for that very reason, and the fact that we…

We continued to explore the Botanical Garden. The glass structure you see in the picture below houses the famous “Goethe Palm” tree, so called because the poet referred to it in an essay he wrote.  It is the oldest plant in the entire garden, having been planted in 1585. Pictured below is one of three…

We arrived at our next destination for the day, the Orto Botanico di Padova, or the Botanical Garden of Padua.  Founded in 1545 by the Venetian Republic, this is the world’s oldest academic botanical garden still in its original location.  The garden covers approximately 22,000 square meters of land, and is run by the University…