Are Padua and Bologna too similar for same trip?

I found Bologna and Padua to be very different cities.

Bologna "feels" much more like a college town in terms of being lively and more likely to have things like a wildly painted Freud themed coffee bar or a cafe themed around cassette tapes. Bologna is also considered the culinary capital of Italy so a lot of attention is paid to ingredients and food.

Padua/Padova has the big churches, occasional glimpses of the river, the Prato della Valle fountain as attractions.

I found the medieval parts of the city much more distinct in Bologna while in Padova outside of the big churches and famous buildings it felt more modernized.

Of the two I would recommend Bologna from my personal preference and experience. I'm sure you'll get a range of opinions.

=Tod

This is highly subjective. I recently visited and stayed in both Padua and Bologna. I would not want to choose between them. I did a daytrip to Parma from Bologna. While I enjoyed the time in Parma, I am very glad I stayed in Bologna for a week. Different vibes and different sights appeal to different people. For me, an absolute highlight and the main reason for going to Padua was the Giotto frescoes in the Scrovegni chapel. There are also a number of other things to do and see in Padua. The historic center seemed more compact than in Bologna and, as others described, the two cities had a different feel. The things I liked about staying in Bologna were: the ease of multiple day trips to places like Parma, Ravenna, Faenza among others; all the food options; a good number of museums and churches that I found worth visiting but none that required advance tickets, the miles of portico covered sidewalks almost everywhere made it easy to walk around when it rained.

Another vote for Bologna.

Thanks for the input. It sounds like the cities have different characters which is what I was interested in. My husband has wanted to go to Bologna since we watched the BBC series Italy Unpacked and one episode featured Bologna.

Now I wanted to return to Venice instead but he is of the mind that there are many places to see, so why repeat?

We may need to at least do a day trip to Venice from Padua, although I know it is not the ideal way.

There are a lot of vloggers who "do" Italy you should do some searching. Like Alex Polizzi.