Prato della Valle
Padua, Italy
A 950,000-square-foot elliptical square, thought to be Europe's second-biggest.
Places in Prato della Valle
- Prato della Valle evening bars Bars around the enormous elliptical square, popular for evening gatherings.
Practical notes for Padua
- Best time to visit
- April to June and September to October offer comfortable weather for exploring the university district and Prato della Valle.
- Getting around
- Padua's Old Town, including the university district and Prato della Valle, is compact and entirely walkable.
- Currency
- Euro (€)
- Language
- Italian. English is common in tourism.
- Timezone
- CET (UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer)
- Current trends
- Padua's dining scene continues embracing its Jewish ghetto heritage, with trattorias in the former ghetto quarter serving traditional Veneto dishes with refinement, complementing cozy wine bar-restaurant hybrids offering inexpensive dinners assembled from classic dishes across Italy.
Other neighborhoods in Padua
- University district — Home to Italy's second-oldest university, founded in 1222, attracting Dante, Petrarch, and Galileo.
- Former Jewish ghetto — Home to a friendly trattoria serving almost exclusively traditional Veneto dishes.
Read the full Padua guide