The Rough Guide to Venice and the Veneto

season’s events can be obtained from the tourist office or in the bi-monthly
information booklet Padova Today, distributed at the tourist office, in some
bars and in most hotels. Of the local newspapers, the most comprehensive for
listings is Il Mattino, but for more offbeat events check the posters up around
the city, particularly around the university. Padua’s nightlife tends to fluctuate
in synch with term time; during the summer vacation things tend to be a
little somnolent and Padua’s half-dozen regular clubs are all fairly low-octane
places at the best of times, though things pick up after around 2am. The liveliest
of the bunch, between Friday and Sunday, at least, is Extra Extra, 3km
west of the centre at Via Ciamician 145, zona Brusegana; take a taxi, as it’s an
inadvisable half-hour walk from the centre by way of Via Sório from Porta
S. Giovanni.
Listings
Bike rental Piazza Stazione
t348.701.6373 (24hr).
Bookshop Feltrinelli International, Via San
Francesco 12. Extensive and up-to-date
selection of books in English.
Bus information City buses (ACAP): Piazzale
Stazione t049.824.1111. Regional buses
(SITA): Piazzale Boschetti t049.820.6844,
with an information office at the left luggage
office of the train station.
Car rental Avis, Piazzale Stazione 1
t049.664.198; Europcar, Piazzale Stazione
6 t049.875.8590; Hertz, Piazzale
Stazione 1 t049.875.2202.
Hospital Ospedale Civile, Via Giustiniani 2
t049.821.1111 (24hr).
Internet access Internet Point Padova, Via
Altinate 145, opposite Santa Sofia.
The Colli Euganei
Markets General daily markets are held
every morning Mon–Fri and all day Saturday
in Piazza delle Erbe, Piazza della
Frutta and Piazza dei Signori. Other
regular ones are held in Piazzale Azzurri
d’Italia (Tues morning), Piazzale Cuoco-
Guizza (Wed morning), Via Bajardi-Mortise
(Fri morning) and Prato della Valle (all
day Sat), which also hosts an antiques
market every third Sunday of the month.
Police Questura, Riviera Ruzante 11
t049.833.111.
Post office Corso Garibaldi 33 (Mon–Fri
8.15am–7.40pm, Sat 8.15am–1pm).
Taxis Radio Taxi t049.651.333; night service
(9.30pm–6am) t049.875.1666.
Train information At the station (daily 7am–
9pm; t89.20.21).
A few kilometres to the southwest of Padua the Colli Euganei or Euganean
Hills – which are now protected as a national park (wwww.parcocollieuganei
.com) – rise abruptly out of the plains, their slopes patched with vineyards
between scattered villages, villas and churches. Between Padua and the hills lie
the spa towns of ÁBANO TERME and MONTEGROTTO TERME, which
for much of the year are crowded with people looking for cures or beauty treatment
from the radioactive waters and mud baths. It’s been like this for centuries,
as the names of the towns indicate: Ábano comes from Aponeus, a Roman god
of healing, while Montegrotto is said to derive from “mons aegratorum”, meaning
“mountain of the infirm”. Largely composed of big and expensive modern
hotels, these really are places to avoid unless you’re hell-bent on trying to poach
yourself in the hot springs – the cruellest one bubbles away at 87°C.
A car is a great advantage for exploring the Colli Euganei proper, as buses
are few and far between, even to somewhere reasonably popular such as Arquà
Petrarca (see p.314). The distances are not huge, however, and bikes can be hired
Padua and the southern veneto The Colli Euganei
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