VENICE

At the heart of the Venetian Lagoon is the Serenissima with its characteristic bridges spanning the canals navigated by gondolas, its monuments, piazzas, narrow lanes and silent waters.

Venice is actually a group of fascinating small islands, where art and history combine with old trades and the beauty of the sea.

We have chosen some special Palazzos where you can stay and enjoy this unique city.

VERONA
Verona is one of Italy’s loveliest towns, famous for its summer opera season. This has been a thriving and successful town for most of its history, and today smart shops and cafes fill the attractive medieval lanes of the historic centre.

Verona is a popular and an appealing destination for weekend breaks or longer stays. There’s a lot to see here, from Roman ruins to the so-called ‘Juliet’s balcony’, and the town is also well-connected for exploring the surrounding area, including destinations like Lake Garda, Vicenza, Padua and Venice.

LAKE GARDA

Lake Garda is the largest lake in Italy and its eastern shore line is in Veneto.

DH Lawrence lived for several months in a  house by the lake. “The lake lies dim and milky,” Lawrence wrote, “the mountains are dark blue… the sky glistens… the light burns gold.” As the lake widens, it changes character, with almost Mediterranean settings of open-air cafés, pebble beaches and picturesque harbours, a Janus-faced landscape as fir and pine trees give way to olive and lemon groves.

The centre of Verona is only 25 kms from the lake.

VICENZA

When Palladio escaped an oppressive employer in his native Padua, few would have guessed the humble stonecutter would, within a few decades, transform not only his adoptive city but also the history of European architecture.

When he returned to Vicenza, the autodidact began producing his extraordinary buildings, structures that marry sophistication and rustic simplicity, reverent classicism and bold innovation. His genius would turn Vicenza and its surrounding villas into one grand Unesco World Heritage Site.

And yet, the Veneto’s fourth-largest city is more than just elegant porticoes and balustrades – its dynamic exhibitions, bars and restaurants provide a satisfying dose of modern vibrancy.

Come and stay in the hills nearby at our villa The Valley of Silence, with Villa Malmarana next door.

THE DOLOMITES

Among the Alps, the Dolomites Mountains are undoubtedly the most spectacular mountains, due to their shape and beauty. They feature some of the most beautiful mountain landscapes anywhere, with vertical walls, sheer cliffs and a high density of narrow, deep and long valleys.

Their intrinsic beauty derives from a variety of spectacular vertical forms such as pinnacles, spires and towers, with contrasting horizontal surfaces including ledges, crags and plateaux, all of which rise abruptly above extensive talus deposits and more gentle foothills. A great diversity of colours is provided by the contrasts between the bare pale-coloured rock surfaces and the forests and meadows below. The mountains rise as peaks with intervening ravines, in some places standing isolated but in others forming sweeping panoramas.

ASOLO

This place oozes romance out of every cobble and window shutter. Asolo’s landscapes are familiar to art lovers from the work of Titian, Giorgione and Canaletto. The poet Robert Browning fell in love with the place and moved here, devoting his final work, Asolando, to his adopted home. The 16th-century cardinal Pietro Bembo hailed it as the Town of a Hundred Horizons, and the name has stuck.

Since the 14th century and the days of the Serenissima (“the most serene republic”), when Queen Caterina Cornaro reigned from her castle at the heart of it all, the town has been the Venetian’s favourite countryside retreat. On Sundays, they close the centre to all traffic and set up a market selling antiques, olive oil and honey. Bands play, children eat ice cream by the fountain in the main square and their parents enjoy lunch at Caffé Centrale where the dining chairs are all emblazoned with the names of Asolo’s late, legendary residents: Browning, Queen Cornaro, Hemingway.

The Villa Cipriani, one of the places to stay in the centre also boasts celebrity patronage. Browning, himself, once owned it, then Giusseppe Cipriani of Harry’s Bar fame and then, for a time, the Guinness family. In the hallway outside one of the first floor bedrooms of this wood-beamed patrician mansion hangs a hazy, soft-focus photograph of our own late Queen Mother who booked herself in for a stay in the 80s when visiting another world famous Asolo settler, the explorer Freya Stark.

PADUA

Though under an hour from Venice, Padua seems a world away with its medieval marketplaces, Fascist-era facades and hip student population.

As a medieval city-state and home to Italy’s second-oldest university, Padua challenged both Venice and Verona for regional hegemony. A series of extraordinary fresco cycles recalls this golden age – including in Giotto’s remarkable Cappella degli Scrovegni, Menabuoi’s heavenly gathering in the Baptistry and Titian’s St Anthony in the Scoletta del Santo.

For the next few centuries Padua and Verona challenged each other for dominance over the Veneto plains. But Venice finally settled the matter by occupying Padua permanently in 1405.

ASIAGO

Gabriele d’Annunzio, the famous Italian poet, defined the town of Asiago as “the smallest and brightest town of Italy”.

The town of Asiago is the main centre of the largest Plateau in Italy, which represents a wide green plain in the heart of the Veneto mountains that reach up to 2,350 metres above sea level. The other seven towns in the Plateau are: Conco, Enego, Foza, Gallio, Lusiana, Roana and Rotzo.

The town is famous for its architectural beauty, bright streets and large squares. Asiago also gives its name to the famous cheese.

Come and stay nearby at The Meltar Boutique Hotel nearby