Meet your captain and board the boat at the Fistomba Park pier near Ognissanti Bridge. Set off on a river route through the city's navigable canals, skirting the ancient Venetian Renaissance walls. Admire the monumental sites visible from the river.

Reach the Golena di San Prosdocimo, admiring the Castelnuovo Bastion, the largest of the entire city walls, as well as the Buovo Bastion or Portello Vecchio, followed by the Portello Nuovo Bastion with its replica of a magnificent Lion of the Serenissima.

Skirt the straight stretch of the sixteenth-century walls that border the university town until you reach Portello, the city's most important river port. At the Porta del Portello, Marco Antonio Loredan, Prefect, in 1518 recognized the greater antiquity of Padua but at the same time asserted Venetian rule. The beautiful sixteenth-century staircase, rediscovered thanks to a Canaletto painting now in Washington, D.C., has made it possible to admire this spectacular Renaissance setting.

Continue toward the historic center until reaching the heart of Padua and the Conca delle Porte Contarine. Return to Parco Fistomba and end your cruise.