UNIVERSIDAD DE SALAMANCA
Salamanca is one of those cities that really should be further up the world tourism agenda, and flooded with coach parties half the year. That it isn’t is probably due to its slightly off-the-beaten-track location, way out West without a major airport nearby, requiring a dusty two-and-a-half-hour train journey from Madrid. Thank heavens for that, you might think, since it is a jewel of a city, relatively unspoiled, yet possessing stacks of historical interest and architectural splendour. 
Even amongst all this, the University stands out as a must-see. Founded in 1218, it’s one of Europe’s oldest, and must be an inspiring environment in which to teach or study. Worth seeing is the Old Library, home to 160,000 tomes, the beautiful staircase, and the stonework facade above the entrance. This is particularly renowned for a tiny figure of a frog on a skull. If you can pick this out from 
all the other ornamental carvings, you will enjoy good luck, marriage, or academic success, depending on which version of the legend you hear. Well, I failed miserably to spot it after several minutes, and neither have I succeeded since in locating it on any of the photos. Does this mean I will never get that elusive Chair?
UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI PADOVA
(UNIVERSITY OF PADUA)
What have Galileo, Copernicus and Casanova got in common? For all I know, the first two might have been red-hot lovers on the quiet, but otherwise they are all associated with Padua’s university, the second oldest in Italy, founded in 1222, over a century after Bologna. 
The main building of interest is the Palazzo Bò, named after an old osteria owned by a butcher that once occupied the city centre site (bò = ox), which you reach after passing through the double loggia that are typical of the historic Italian campuses.
Here you have a statue of the world’s first female graduate, Elena Piscopia (Philosophy, 1688), and, up a flight of stairs, the oldest surviving Anatomy Theatre (1594), where students would crowd the six tiers of railings to peer down at the autopsy table where dissections were performed. 
Nearby, in the Sala dei Quaranta (named after the 40 portraits of European scholars on the walls), stands the cattedra (lectern) from which Galileo used to deliver his lectures to crowds of students and assorted curious locals. He held a Chair of Mathematics here between 1592 and 1610, though the link to Copernicus is almost incidental, the latter being a medical student over 100 years earlier. 
A couple of kilometres south of the University is the Orto Botanico (Botanical Garden), which dates from 1545, making it the oldest garden of its kind still in situ. Quite apart from any scientific interest, it is a beautiful spot. Naturally the medicinal plants hold centre stage, along with the Palma di San Pietro, a palm tree dating from 1585 and protected in its own little greenhouse. Much admired by Goethe during his travels, it’s sometimes referred to as Goethe’s Palm. As for Casanova (Law, 1742)? He probably didn’t get up to much though – he was still a virgin on graduation, at the tender age of 17.
Salamanca is one of those cities that really should be further up the world tourism agenda, and flooded with coach parties half the year. That it isn’t is probably due to its slightly off-the-beaten-track location, way out West without a major airport nearby, requiring a dusty two-and-a-half-hour train journey from Madrid. Thank heavens for that, you might think, since it is a jewel of a city, relatively unspoiled, yet possessing stacks of historical interest and architectural splendour. 
Even amongst all this, the University stands out as a must-see. Founded in 1218, it’s one of Europe’s oldest, and must be an inspiring environment in which to teach or study. Worth seeing is the Old Library, home to 160,000 tomes, the beautiful staircase, and the stonework facade above the entrance. This is particularly renowned for a tiny figure of a frog on a skull. If you can pick this out from 
all the other ornamental carvings, you will enjoy good luck, marriage, or academic success, depending on which version of the legend you hear. Well, I failed miserably to spot it after several minutes, and neither have I succeeded since in locating it on any of the photos. Does this mean I will never get that elusive Chair?
