This Renaissance palazzo is the seat of Padua’s history-making university. Founded by renegade scholars from Bologna seeking greater intellectual freedom, the university has employed some of Italy’s greatest and most controversial thinkers, including Copernicus, Galileo, Casanova and the world’s first female doctor of philosophy, Eleonora Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia (her statue graces the stairs). The 45-minute guided tours include the world’s first anatomy theatre .
