In the old centre of Padua, near the medieval tower that later became an astronomical observatory, a small oratory hides one of the city's quieter treasures. The Oratory of St Michael contains frescoes painted by Jacopo da Verona at the end of the fourteenth century, scenes from the life of the Virgin populated with recognisable citizens of Padua dressed in the fashions of the day. It is one of eight sites inscribed in 2021 as Padua's fourteenth-century fresco cycles, the group that also includes Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel.
Padua was an extraordinary place in that century. The Carrara lords who ruled the city patronised painters who pushed far beyond the flat, gold-backed images of the past, and the frescoes scattered across Padua show the start of a new way of seeing space and people. The city's university, founded in 1222, is one of the oldest in Europe; Galileo taught there, and its botanical garden, laid out in the sixteenth century, is a World Heritage Site in its own right. The great Basilica of Saint Anthony draws pilgrims from all over the world.
As a riding stop, be realistic: this is the middle of a busy city. The centre has restricted traffic zones with cameras, the ring roads are congested at peak hours, and scooters, bicycles and trams all compete for space. Park on the edge of the old town and walk. In return you get one of the most enjoyable cities in Italy for a long lunch, with arcaded streets, the vast market squares around the Palazzo della Ragione, and a spritz culture that Padua claims as its own.
The rewarding riding starts twenty kilometres south-west, where the Euganean Hills rise abruptly out of the plain. These volcanic hills are small but full of roads that twist up through vineyards and chestnut woods to villages like Teolo, Arquà Petrarca, where the poet Petrarch spent his last years, and the old spa towns of Abano and Montegrotto. The bends are tight and the surfaces sometimes patchy, and cyclists love these hills as much as riders do, so watch every blind corner on weekends.
Fuel is easy everywhere around Padua outside the centre. Summer in the Veneto plain is hot and humid, with thunderstorms on many afternoons, so spring and autumn are more comfortable for riding the hills.