🇧🇪
Brussels
Belgium
Multilingual capital of Europe with great rail connections.
🇮🇹
Padova
Italy
Historic university town, just 30 minutes from Venice.
Estimated monthly student budget
🇧🇪 Brussels
€1,000–1,300 / month
Estimated monthly student budget
🇮🇹 Padova
€800–1,100 / month
Best for
🇧🇪 Brussels
- Students interested in EU politics or international careers
- Those who plan to travel widely across Europe
- People who enjoy multilingual environments
Best for
🇮🇹 Padova
- Students who want a real university-town atmosphere
- Those who plan to travel around northern Italy frequently
- People who value academic prestige
Category profile
How each city tends to feel across the things students care about — different, not better or worse.
🇧🇪 Brussels
🇮🇹 Padova
Expensive
Cost of Living
Moderate
High
Nightlife
Moderate
Fair
Weather
Good
Excellent
Travel Opportunities
Excellent
Active
Student Life
Outstanding
Manageable
Housing
Manageable
Strong
University Reputation
Top-Tier
Student insights
🇧🇪 Brussels
- Extremely international
- Excellent rail connections to London, Paris, Amsterdam, Cologne
- Strong professional and internship opportunities
Student insights
🇮🇹 Padova
- One of Italy's oldest and most prestigious universities
- Just 30 minutes by train to Venice
- Strong sense of student community
Student voice — 🇧🇪 Brussels
“Brussels is amazing if you care about EU careers.”
Student voice — 🇮🇹 Padova
“Padova surprised me — I'd choose it again over Milan.”
🇧🇪 Brussels
Pros
- Extremely international
- Excellent rail connections to London, Paris, Amsterdam, Cologne
- Strong professional and internship opportunities
- Wide cultural offer
- Multilingual environment
Cons
- Grey, rainy climate
- Fragmented student community across neighbourhoods
- Cost of living relatively high
- Less iconic atmosphere than Ghent or Bruges
- Bureaucracy across language regions
🇮🇹 Padova
Pros
- One of Italy's oldest and most prestigious universities
- Just 30 minutes by train to Venice
- Strong sense of student community
- Compact, walkable historic centre
- Reasonable cost of living for northern Italy
Cons
- Smaller international community than Bologna
- Less famous than Florence or Rome
- Cold and foggy winters
- Limited big-city nightlife
- Housing tightens up at the start of the academic year
Have you studied in one of these cities?
Share your experience and help future students make better Erasmus decisions.