Orto Botanico 1545 in Padua

You're standing at the Orto Botanico in Padua, the oldest academic botanical garden in the world that's still in its original location. The Venetian Republic founded it in 1545. Its purpose was very practical. Medicinal plants grew here, and students learned to tell the genuine ones from look-alikes. Picking the wrong plant could do a patient serious harm, or worse.