Quick Trip to Italy in February

For an overnight bag you can take just a change of underwear and sox so a small backpack or messenger bag will hold what you need. Then you won't need to find a place to stash your overnight bag while you visit the basilica in Padua. Your hotel in Rome should be ok with your overnight absence. Just tell them your plans. Venice does have winter--cold, rain or snow, etc. Maybe high water. Check your book or the internet for Feb. temperatures.

1. No to all counts.
2. On average temps in February are in the very low 30s at night and high 40s during the day. Precipitation is not particularly heavy in Feb.
3. Yes.

While you can spend your time in Padua, it doesn't leave much time for Venice. Basilica of Saint Anthony or the Scrovegni Chapel? Realistically:

8.00 taxi from hotel to Termini, maybe earlier depending on where your hotel is and what traffic is like.
8.35 train to Padua.
11.52 arrive Padua. 10-15 minutes to store bag, 15 minute walk to Scrovegni Chapel or 1/2 hour walk/tram to Basilica. One hour for visit. I know the visit only takes 40 minutes, but if you cut it too close, you might miss your time slot if it's Scrovegni.
1.30 Lunch?? (remember, breakfast was about 6 hours ago)
2.30 10-15 minutes to the train station, 10-15 minutes to collect bag, buy tickets, find train platform.
3.30 Arrive in Venice. Allow 30 minutes to your hotel to drop your bag. It's 4 pm and you are just now beginning your time in Venice. Tomorrow, you'll either have to carry your bag around with you or go back to the hotel to collect it before going to the train station for a 4-hour train ride back to Rome.

And in Feb sunset will be around 530 in Venice.

Daylight is about 10 hrs. per day at that time of the year.

Thanks so much for the responses. I would rather go right on to Venice but one person in our group requested a stop in Padua. We will probably try to do both the Basilica of Saint Anthony and the Scrovegni Chapel, knowing that we won't get to our hotel until about 4. We will spend most of the next day in Venice with a later afternoon/early evening train back to Rome.

A couple more questions:

1) Can you buy food on the trains or purchase food in advance and eat on the trains in Italy?
2) Any recommendations for non-touristy restaurants in Venice (pasta, seafood, etc.) that are elegant but won't break the bank? Something close to a Vaporetto stop would be appreciated.
3) Any recommendations on sites associated with Lord Byron in Padua or Venice. I have a good understanding of them but wanted to see if there is anything I might have missed.

Thanks very much!

Take-away food is available in any train station of reasonable size in Italy, and eating on trains is common.

I believe you are seriously underestimating the time it requires to move from place to place, store and retrieve bags and have a meal in an elegant Italian restaurant. I like both Padua and Venice a lot but would never consider cramming them into a short one-night-away break from Rome. I wouldn't go farther from Rome than Orvieto.

I believe you'll find yourselves too sleep-deprived and jetlagged to do serious sightseeing on your arrival day. If you plan to hop right on a train to Padua (in theory a good use of your jetlagged day, if only you didn't have to turn around and return to Rome the very next day), you have schedule uncertainty to deal with. Who knows when you'll get to the train station at Fiumicino? You'll need to either buy a rather costly walk-up ticket or build in a lot of slack before the train departure time, which will eat into your time in Padua. The Scrovegni Chapel requires a reservation, and you'll lose your slot if you aren't there on time. That means adding some protective time-padding.

You'll also have less than a full day in Venice--of which you propose to spend part eating a serious meal, meaning a reservation and making sure you're in the right place at the right time, requiring more time-padding. I believe you're setting yourselves up for joining the significant number of short-term visitors to Venice who don't mich like the city because they have no time to see anything other than a few tourist-clogged sites.

I'm not sure eating on the train is going to help you on the way to Venice. You could take a really early train out of Rome and either have your hotel pack a picnic breakfast or buy food at one of the several places in Termini instead of having breakfast in your hotel before you leave Rome. It will be too early for lunch on the train and from Padua to Venice is less than 30 minutes. You could grab sandwiches and drinks in town or at the Padua station before boarding and snarf them down to save a little time. Walking through the train to the "dining" car and back could take too long. Returning to Rome, you could stop anywhere in Venice and get take-out food and drinks for the long ride back. I've always found the food options on the trains to be very limited. Coffee is probably good, there will be an espresso machine.

Google maps shows nearly a mile walk from the Scrovegni Chapel to the Basilica, then longer returning to the train station. If you can figure where it stops and where/how to buy tickets, the tram may save you a few minutes from the basilica to the train. I don't know how easy it is to get a taxi, that's probably your best bet for going to/from the basilica, but even though it's a short distance, street traffic can slow you down a lot.

I believe you'll find yourselves too sleep-deprived and jetlagged to
do serious sightseeing on your arrival day. If you plan to hop right
on a train to Padua.

I don't get the feeling that the OP is looking to do this on arrival day as they mention just taking overnight bags; jet lag and possible flight-arrival complications aren't the issues. (ByronBeauty, correct me if I'm in error here?)

But it's a longer distance from Rome than I'd want to do for one night if I had to turn around and go BACK to Rome, and a lot to try and cram into a short time.

As much as we love Venice we would never consider doing a one night trip there from Rome by train. Flying? Maybe but probably not. A two or three night stay, if possible, would be much more feasable. Just one opinion.