Casa del Petrarca (Petrarca’s House), Arquà Petrarca, Padua

Like every year, a group of us – colleagues, friends, fellow travelers – set out for our traditional road trip.

It’s always a mix of study and escape, a “field trip” wrapped in laughter and playlists.
Because we all work for an institute that manages four house museums, there’s one small rule:
On every trip, we have to visit at least one house museum.

This time, it was my turn to choose.
And I chose the house where one of the greatest Italian poets, philosophers, and writers spent his final years – Francesco Petrarca.

In a tiny, stunning village near Padua, a place so beautiful and gentle it could easily pass for Tuscany on a sunny day.

There’s nothing better than being on a road trip with good people.
The music is playing, the sun is shining, and you’re heading toward the unknown – a little house museum near Padua.
And not just any house – the home of a poet that France Prešeren, Slovenia’s greatest poet, deeply admired.
Prešeren mentioned Petrarca several times in his work.
He even set up a mirror to every Slovene when he wrote:

What need have we for Petrarch or Tasso?.. He who busies himself with singing is blind.

The house where Petrarca spent his last days was a gift from his friend, Francesco I da Carrara, Lord of Padua.
Petrarca personally oversaw the renovation.
He wasn’t rich, but he wasn’t destitute either.
It helps to have friends – doesn’t it?

And visiting house museums with friends is a different experience too.
When you visit alone, you get pulled into the objects, the spaces, the whispered stories.
When you visit with friends, the museum becomes part of the background, and the people become the foreground.

You notice where your colleague lingers.
You smile when someone discreetly snaps a photo.
You laugh quietly when someone spots the modern electric heater awkwardly hidden in the corner.

And you wonder:
Did they like the house?
Did they feel what I felt?

Maybe not.
Maybe more.

Like the Lord of Padua cared for Petrarca, I cared too.
I wanted the house to inspire my colleagues.
I wanted the trip to mean something.

Of course, my worries were unnecessary.
They know Prešeren better than anyone.
They guide visitors through his birth house every day.
They know exactly who Petrarca was, and how important he was to Prešeren.

You need people who understand what stirs your heart.
You need people who gently blow wind under your wings when you’re too tired to fly.

That’s what Cicero, Virgil, and Seneca were to Petrarca.
And Petrarca was to Prešeren.
A guide.
A poet.
A fellow soul.

Always suffering.

Object highlight: A cat, a chair, and a fireplace full of names

You can’t visit Petrarca’s house without noticing the cat.
Above one of the doorways, carefully preserved and respectfully displayed,
rests the mummified remains of Petrarca’s beloved cat –
an eternal act of love from a poet who knew the pain of fleeting things.

Another treasure is a simple chair, believed to be authentically Petrarca’s own.
Imagine him sitting there –
not as a statue or legend,
but as a tired man, resting, remembering, dreaming.

And then there are the huge fireplaces, so large you can literally step inside them.
Inside the ancient stones,
you’ll find something unexpected: thousands of signatures.
Young visitors, overcome by the need to leave their mark,
scratched their names into the inner walls of the fireplace instead of writing into a guest book.
(Maybe this was the wild, unplanned version of the “hands-on experience” museums chase after today.)

Soundtrack: The Rolling Stones – Always Suffering

When you walk through Petrarca’s house,
when you sit in its quiet garden,
when you touch the old stones –
you can feel it:

The beauty of things passing.
The loneliness that grows if we stop nurturing what connects us.

We are always suffering.
We are already lost.

Like house museums,
we, too, have grown used to solitude.
If we don’t hold onto community –
with road trips, care for friends, colleagues, mentors, even cats –
one day we might find ourselves utterly alone.

Can house museums save us?

More Information on Casa del Petrarca (Petrarca’s House), Arquà Petrarca, Padua

Official website: Casa del Petrarca (Petrarca’s House), Arquà Petrarca, Padua

Photos: Matjaž Koman / House Museum Nerd
Text: Matjaž Koman / House Museum Nerd

This post is part of the Ultimate House Museum Guide for Nerds – a personal project exploring the beauty, strangeness and magic of house museums around the world.