Highlights of Padua

This half day Venice shore trip provides the highlights of Padua, including the Scrovegni Chapel, painted by Giotto in the early 14th century and considered one of the great masterpieces of European art.

After meeting your licensed guide at the pier in Venice, you depart immediately for Padua, a university town of about 200,000 people and home to one of the oldest universities in the world, founded in 1222. During your city tour, you see the 13th century Basilica of Saint Anthony, locally known as Il Santo, where the saint's remains rest in a chapel richly ornamented with carved marble.

You'll also see the Palazzo della Ragione, known for having the largest roof unsupported by columns in Europe, its great hall almost 270 feet long and 90 feet wide and covered in frescoes. Beneath the hall is a market that has operated in the same spot for over a thousand years. Along the way you pass several of Padua's university buildings and its famous market squares.

Your tour ends at Padua's most celebrated sight, the Scrovegni Chapel. Painted by Giotto between 1303 and 1305, its frescoes tell the story of the Virgin Mary and Christ and are widely credited with helping shift European painting away from flat medieval style toward greater realism. Because of recent renovations, your visit includes 15 minutes in a climate-controlled airlock vault beforehand, used to stabilize the temperature between the outside air and the chapel interior.

• The maximum number of people allowed in the chapel at one time is 24, so larger groups are divided into smaller groups for the visit.