When: from June to September: 9.00-19.00, closed on Mondays; October: 9.00 am-6.00 pm, closed on Mondays; from November to March: 9.00-17.00, closed on Mondays; April and May: 9.00-19.00.

Where: Via Orto Botanico 15, Padua

Distance from Residence La Mason: 60 km, 48 minutes.

Padova’s gem

The botanical garden is one of the greatest excellences of Padua: founded in 1545, it is the oldest in the world, it covers 2.2 hectares and has always been particularly important for research and botanical studies around the world. It has introduced some plants for the first time in Italy, including magnolia, potato, jasmine, acacia, sunflower and ginko biloba. For its central role in scientific circles and in the network of international relations, in 1997 it was included by UNESCO on the list of World Heritage sites.

Today, the garden hosts over 6,000 plants and 3,500 different species, including insectivorous plants, medicinal and poisonous plants, plants from abroad and plants from the Euganean hills, which are the typical species of the territory. However, the most beloved exemplar in the botanical garden is undoubtedly “Goethe’s Palm”, which you can see in the Hortus sphaericus: planted in 1585, this is the oldest tree in the garden and in 1786 under its very high trunk the German poet formulated his evolutionary intuition then published in 1790 in the “Essay on the metamorphosis of plants“.

For more information, please visit the official website.