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.