🇩🇰
Copenhagen
Denmark
Scandinavian design, bikes and one of Europe's best quality of life.
🇮🇹
Padova
Italy
Historic university town, just 30 minutes from Venice.
Estimated monthly student budget
🇩🇰 Copenhagen
€1,400–1,800 / month
Estimated monthly student budget
🇮🇹 Padova
€800–1,100 / month
Best for
🇩🇰 Copenhagen
- Students who value high quality of life
- Those interested in design and sustainability
- People looking for top-tier universities
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.
🇩🇰 Copenhagen
🇮🇹 Padova
Very Expensive
Cost of Living
Moderate
High
Nightlife
Moderate
Fair
Weather
Good
High
Travel Opportunities
Excellent
Very Active
Student Life
Outstanding
Very Tight
Housing
Manageable
Top-Tier
University Reputation
Top-Tier
Student insights
🇩🇰 Copenhagen
- Excellent quality of life
- World-class universities
- Very bike-friendly and well-organised
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 — 🇩🇰 Copenhagen
“Best quality of life I've ever experienced.”
Student voice — 🇮🇹 Padova
“Padova surprised me — I'd choose it again over Milan.”
🇩🇰 Copenhagen
Pros
- Excellent quality of life
- World-class universities
- Very bike-friendly and well-organised
- Strong design and sustainability culture
- English universally spoken
Cons
- Very high cost of living
- Extremely competitive housing market
- Long, dark winters
- Locals can feel reserved
- Less spontaneous nightlife than southern Europe
🇮🇹 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.