La piazza degli studenti di Padova
Everything nobodytells you aboutstudying here.
The students' square in Padova: a verified handbook and a meeting place for everyone who studies here, from another continent, another region or the next town. The paperwork, the deadlines, the money, and the traps that cost people a year, written by students who have already stood at every one of these counters.
- 16
- guides
- 112
- official sources
- 4
- things we are unsure about
Loggia AmuleaOn the edge of Prato della Valle. The square everyone ends up at on a warm evening, whether they meant to or not.
Find five more like itYour first week
Seven days, one street at a time
Keep scrolling: the week rides past.
Swipe through the week, one day at a time.
Day 1
Land, and sleep
Find the train or bus into Padova, drop your bags, eat something. Nothing official is due today, but the permit clock has started.
Getting hereDay 2
A number and a code
An Italian SIM first: every form wants an Italian phone number. Then ask for your codice fiscale, through the university if you can.
The codice fiscaleDay 3
The yellow kit
Pick up the residence permit kit at a Sportello Amico post office and the revenue stamp at a tabaccheria. You have 8 working days from arrival to hand it in.
The residence permitDay 4
Hand it in, keep the receipts
Submit the sealed kit at the post office and photograph all three receipts. Until your card arrives, that receipt is your legal status.
What the receipts are forDay 5
Switch on the mensa
Log in to ESU with your name exactly as it is on Uniweb. The canteen switches on 48 to 72 hours after your first esu login, so do it before you are hungry.
The mensaDay 6
A bus pass and a desk
Install the bus app, pick the pass that fits your week, and find the study room nearest your department, with its hours.
Buses and study roomsDay 7
Walk under the porticoes
Go to Prato della Valle for no reason at all. Then read what the students before you wish they had known.
Words from seniors
The journey
Five stages, in the order they actually happen to you
- 01
Still at home
Before you fly
Attestation, visa, pre-enrolment and a room, the stage where mistakes are cheapest to fix and most expensive to make.
4 guides →
- 02
First eight days
The legal clock
The residence permit deadline runs from your first full day here. This is the only part of the year with a legal countdown attached.
2 guides →
- 03
First month
Getting functional
Health cover, a bank account, a SIM, and the decisions that quietly cost money later.
3 guides →
- 04
First three months
Getting settled
Residenza, the health service, and the scholarship paperwork that is worth the most money.
2 guides →
- 05
After that
Staying here
Renewals, taxes if you worked, family visits, graduating, and leaving Italy properly: the second half of a degree.
5 guides →
Why you can trust this
Every student guide rots. This one is built to admit it.
Offices move, fees change, deadlines shift. A guide that cannot tell you how old it is becomes actively dangerous. You trust it precisely because it looks confident. So the machinery that keeps this honest is visible, on every page.
Every page states its own age
Each guide carries the date it was last checked and the person who owns it. Past its review date, the badge turns amber by itself and asks you for help. Nobody has to remember.
The law and the rumour look different
Anything an official body states is labelled and linked to its source. Anything students merely report is labelled as exactly that. You always know which one you are reading.
We publish what we do not know
When sources conflict or a page will not load, the claim does not get published as fact. It goes on a public list of open questions instead of being guessed at.
Money on the table
Three facts worth more than the rest of this website combined
Regional scholarship deadline
30 September 2026
Closed for this year. The next call comes out each July, and the deadline is again at the end of September: put it in your calendar now.
How the scholarship worksLower tuition: apply by
30 November 2026
Your fees are reduced, or waived entirely, according to your family's income. Before this date, confirm the Application for Benefits on Uniweb and have your ISEE made: the ISEE parificato at the university's CAF if your family's income is abroad. Uniweb collects the ISEE by itself.
The university's ISEE page ↗Missed 30 November?
€109 to €327 late fee
You can still ask for lower fees, but late: €109 until 15 February, €218 until 15 May, €327 until 30 September 2027. After that, the reduction for this year is lost.
Every date, in the university's guide (PDF) ↗Found something out of date? That is the most useful thing you can give us.
Every correction is checked against the official source before it is published. One person’s wasted morning at a counter becomes something nobody else has to repeat.
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