Piazza dei Frutti

Piazza dei Frutti is the northern of the two market squares that the Palazzo della Ragione divides, and the fruit market that gave it its name still sets up here each morning. It is the quieter and less photographed of the pair, which for most of the day makes it the better one to sit in.

A working market serving residents. Buying something is the difference between taking part and looking on, and stallholders are trading rather than performing.

Evening drinking here happens directly beneath people's flats, and the tolerance for late noise is thinner than the crowd suggests.

Public and open at all hours, with no admission. The market runs mornings, Monday to Saturday. It sits in the middle of Padua's ZTL, about fifteen minutes on foot from the railway station.

Morning for the market, evening for the bars, and mid-afternoon if you want the square empty -- the same three-shift pattern as its twin.

It gets less direct sun than Piazza delle Erbe because of the Palazzo's bulk to the south, which makes it the more comfortable of the two on a hot afternoon.