What do the Botanical Garden of Padua, the Venetian Villas of Andrea Palladio, Vicenza and the Dolomites, the islands of the Lagoon of Venice and the City of Verona all have in common? They all are cultural or natural heritages, to be preserved for all mankind.

This is a legacy of absolute excellence, which keeps the precious marks left by our predecessors, allowing us to maintain those "universal values" that underpin our cultural identity. UNESCO - the UN agency whose objective is to identify and protect cultural and natural properties around the world - inscribed these sites of the Veneto in the World Heritage List, belonging to the whole human race.

Today there are five settings in the Veneto region that are awarded with this prestigious grant. In 1987, Venice and its Lagoon first entered the List; the Botanical Garden of Padua joined the World Heritage in 1997, together with the ‘multiple locations' of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas, included in 1994 and extended in 1996; the City of Verona was listed in 2000, and the Dolomites were recently recorded in June 2009, thanks to their natural environment.

www.sitiunescoveneto.it
www.unesco.it
www.ortobotanico.unipd.it
www.comune.verona.it/unesco/unesco.htm
www.comune.venezia.it
www.comune.vicenza.it/ente/settori/dipserv/cultur/turismo/attrattiveturistiche/cittaunesco.php
www.vicenzaforumcenter.it/vicenza_citta_unesco/
www.dolomitiunesco.it/