Our final leg of this Italian trip was to the city of Padua just a very short, 30 minute, train trip from Venice. I could start seeing the transformation in Esther as we were making our way to the train station in Venice – from the tourist to the professional. Esther was starting to get ready for the conference and her talk.

As we made our way to get Esther’s conference badges and the opening remarks; I asked her if she knew anyone here and she replied no. She said, this was probably the only conference where she didn’t know anyone. We were both surprised as we were walking way and a voice, from behind, called out Dr. van der Knaap?, Dr. van der Knaap? Turned out to be a recent PhD graduate from Padua who had been following Esther’s work and was very happy to meet her in person – so cool and I was glad to have been there.
While Esther attended the conference I visited the Medical Museum, Botanical Gardens, The Basilica De Sant Antonio and several churches – so many beautiful images.

Padua is a city in Veneto, northern Italy and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, 25 miles west of Venice and 18 miles southeast of Vicenza. With a population of 207,694 and of 2025. Padua is home to one of the oldest universities in the world, the University of Padua, founded in 1222 and where figures such as Galileo Galilei and Nicolaus Copernicus taught or studied.

The University of Padua is an Italian public research university in Padua, Italy. It was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from the University of Bologna, who previously settled in Vicenza; thus, it is the second-oldest university in Italy, as well as the world’s fifth-oldest surviving university.

The University of Padua was one of the most prominent universities in early modern Europe, known particularly for the rigor of its Aristotelian logic and science. Together with the University of Bologna, Padua had a central role in the Italian Renaissance, housing and educating a number of Italian Renaissance mathematicians, amongst them Nicolaus Copernicus.

As of 2021, it is made up of 32 departments and eight schools. Padua is part a network of historical research universities known as the Coimbra Group. In 2021, the university had approximately 72,000 students including undergraduates, postgraduates, and doctoral students.

Cappella del Tesoro o delle Reliquie 

The Chapel of Relics is a place of great historical and religious importance, located within the Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua. The chapel, built towards the end of the 17th century, was designed by the architect and sculptor Filippo Parodi and features a vast collection of reliquaries, chalices, votives offerings, autographs of saints and other precious objects. Among the most significant relics are the incorrupt tongue of Saint Anthony, the chin of the Saint, the crystal cross, and the vocal apparatus of the saint. The chapel is a work of art that reflects the rich artistic and religious tradition of the Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua.

The Orto Botanico di Padova is a botanical garden in Padua, in the northeastern part of Italy. Founded in June 1545 by the Venetian Republic, it is the world’s oldest academic botanical garden that is still in its original location.  It was devoted to the growth of medicinal plants, the so-called “simple plants”  simples were herbs that were used as they are rather than in admixtures) which produced natural remedies, and also to help students distinguish genuine medicinal plants from false ones.  The garden – operated by the University of Padua and owned by the Italian government – encompasses roughly 22,000 square meters (240,000 sq ft), and is known for its special collections and historical design.

Perhaps my favorite thing in Padua was visiting the Giotto fresco cycle in the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua Italy. The Scrovegni Chapel Italian Cappella degli Scrovegni is a small church, in Padua, region of Veneto, Italy. The chapel and monastery are now part of the complex of the Museo Civico of Padua. The chapel contains a fresco cycle by Giotto, completed about 1305 and considered to be an important masterpiece of Western art.

I was glad to have been able to visit the Museum of the History of Medicine in Padua occupies a section of what was the Hospital of San Francesco Grande , the first and most important hospital in Padua for four centuries, founded in 1414 and in use until 1798. The structure was part of the fifteenth-century complex of San Francesco Grande, separated from the convent of the Friars Minor by the church of San Francesco Grande .

It was incredible to see how doctors, scholars, and researchers learned about the anatomy of the human body in the 13th century and also how quickly medicine evolved.

We ended our stay in Padua with a fabulous 4 course dinner provide by the host of the conference.

Venice – the capital of northern Italy’s Veneto region, is built on more than 100 small islands in a lagoon in the Adriatic Sea. It has no roads, just canals – including the Grand Canal thoroughfare – lined with Renaissance and Gothic palaces. The central square, Piazza San Marco, contains St. Mark’s Basilica, which is tiled with Byzantine mosaics, and the Campanile bell tower offering views of the city’s red roofs.

We took the train from Trieste to Venice where we had booked a VRBO right in the center of town. We decided to walk the 20 minute distance from the train to station to main square near our room where our host agreed to meet us to help us navigate the maze of streets and allies to our room. The walk was fairly easy but we had about bridges to cross on the way and with Esther’s 40 pound suit case it was a workout.

On our first and only full day in Venice we took the ferry out to Burano an island in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy, near Torcello at the northern end of the lagoon, known for its lace work and brightly colored homes. The primary economy is tourism and the current population of Burano is about 2,800

On our way to a museum we noticed a special Vivaldi concert at an old church that had been converted into a music venue. The museum was closing when we got there so we decided to check out the concert. They were performing Vivaldi’s concerti The Four Seasons – which is a group of four violin concerti each of which gives musical expression to a season of the year. These were composed around 1718-1723, when Vivaldi was the court chapel master in Mantua. They were published in 1745 in Amsterdam in what was at the time the Dutch Republic. Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was born on 4 March 1678 in Venice, then the capital of the Republic of Venice. GREAT CONCERT!

Venice was amazing and I’m really glad I got to see it in person – but it was hot and crowded so I think the day and a half we were there was enough. I’m now ready for our third and final destination of this trip – Padua. Especially since Jeff Bezos is coming into Venice for his wedding in a day or two – glad we missed that.

We had an 8:30PM, non-stop, flight out of Atlanta on Wednesday June 19 to Venice Italy. It was the beginning of a week long, 3 city, adventure packed trip, We arrive around 11:20AM, on Thursday, and took a short bus ride to the train station where we had tickets to Trieste.Fly into Venice – We had a non-stop, 8:30PM, flight out of Atlanta on Wednesday June 19 to Venice Italy. We arrive around 11:20AM, on Thursday, and took a short bus ride to the train station where we had tickets to Trieste.

PART ONE – Trieste, Italy
Trieste is a city ad seaport in northeast Italy. It is located at the head of the Gulf of Trieste, on a narrow strip of Italian territory lying between the Adriatic Sea and Slovenia. As of 2025, it has a population of 198,668. The city has a long coastline and is surrounded by grassland, forest and karstic areas – a topography formed by the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks like limestone or dolomite.
The top photo is the Piazza Unità d’Italia the main square in Trieste, it is located at the foot of the hill with the castle of San Giusto, the square faces the Adriatic Sea. It is often said to be Europe’s largest square located next to the sea. The square was built during the period when Trieste was the most important seaport of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and includes the city’s municipal buildings and other important palaces.

We had a wonderful room at the Elizabeth boutique rooms in the center of town where we stayed two nights .

Slovenia – officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungry to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southwest, and a short (46.6 km) coastline with the Adriatic Sea to the Southwest, which is part of the Mediterranean Sea.

Through TripAdvisor we booked a tour of the Slovenia coast with a wonderful tour guide. The tour included a coffee break at a small little café on the coast, a lunch break in Koper / Capodistria and finally a wine tasting in Vinska Fontana Marezige.

On our last day, after checking out of the hotel we took the bus up to Miramare Castle – It was built from 1856 to 1860 for Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian and his wife, Charlotte of Belgium, later Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico and Empress Carlota of Mexico, based on a design by Carl Junker.

The castle’s grounds include an extensive cliff and seashore park of 22 hectares (54 acres) designed by the archduke. The grounds were completely re-landscaped to feature numerous tropical species of trees and plantsMiramare Castle – It was built from 1856 to 1860 for Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian and his wife, Charlotte of Belgium, later Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico and Empress Carlota of Mexico, based on a design by Carl Junker.

The castle’s grounds include an extensive cliff and seashore park of 22 hectares (54 acres) designed by the archduke. The grounds were completely re-landscaped to feature numerous tropical species of trees and plants

San Giusto – As reported by most historians of Trieste, the current appearance of the basilica derives from the unification of the two pre-existing churches of Santa Maria and the one dedicated to the martyr San Giusto , which were incorporated under the same roof by the bishop Rodolfo Pedrazzani da Robecco between the years 1302 and 1320 to provide the city with an imposing cathedral.

The first mention of the cathedral dates back to 1337 , when the bell tower of the former church of Santa Maria was covered with a thick wall to support the new building. Work on the bell tower was completed in 1343, but work on the church continued until practically the end of the century. The bell tower was originally taller, but in 1422 it was struck by lightning and reduced to its current height.

After the city’s definitive dedication to Austria ( 1382 ), the then emperor Leopold III appointed the first German bishop of Trieste, Henry de Wildenstein, who consecrated the cathedral’s high altar on 27 November 1385.

In November 1899 Pope Leo XIII elevated it to the dignity of minor basilica.

It was hard to say goodbye to Trieste because it was such a beautiful town with so much to see and do. Next time we visit I will bring my bike because of all the dedicated bike paths some of which go through Slovenia and Croatia.