Visit Padua

A city built on water with no cars — gondolas, Byzantine mosaics, and getting happily lost in the back canals

Pale limestone towers that turn rose-pink at sunset — Italy’s most spectacular mountains

Romeo and Juliet’s city — a Roman arena still staging opera, and a romantic riverside old town

Palladio's home town — the architect who reshaped Western buildings, from villas to the US Capitol

Glide the back canals by gondola — touristy, yes, but silent, ancient and unrepeatable anywhere else

From Venice and Verona to Prosecco hills and Dolomite peaks — Veneto spans lagoon to mountain

Masked balls and Carnevale in the floating city — 18th-century costumes drifting through misty winter squares

The world's oldest film festival — red carpets on the Lido and the Golden Lion every late summer