Marostica
7 km away, the "chess town": two castles joined by walls climbing the hill, and the famous living-chess game in the square. Home of the IGP cherry.
Bassano is where the Venetian plain gathers and suddenly rises. Two paces from the bridge, two different landscapes begin: the Pedemontana of cultivated hills and Venetian villas, and the pure mountain of the Monte Grappa massif, the Brenta gorge and the Asiago plateau. In between, the Brenta — the physical and symbolic hinge.
The Brenta rises from the lakes of Levico and Caldonazzo, in Trentino, descends through the Valsugana and the Brenta gorge and emerges into the plain right at Bassano, where the hills force it into a wide eastward curve. It is the river that made the town: it turned its mills, fed its channels, carried timber downstream and gave the bridge its meaning.
In Bassano people always speak of "destra Brenta" and "sinistra Brenta" — not figures of speech but two territories. The right bank (west) looks to the Monte Grappa massif and the villages of Pove, Solagna, Campolongo. The left bank (east), flatter, opens towards Romano d'Ezzelino, the Grappa foothills and, beyond, Asolo and the Treviso area.
Palladio's bridge is the hinge that stitches the two banks together: for eight centuries you cross from one world to another.
The Pedemontana is the strip of hills and high plain running along the foot of the Venetian Pre-Alps, from Sandrigo (Vicenza) to Conegliano (Treviso). One of Europe's most productive areas — and one of the most shaped by human hands.
Seen from Bassano, the Pedemontana is first of all wine: the Torcolato and Vespaiolo of Breganze, the Asolo Prosecco to the east. It is then the Venetian villa: within thirty kilometres are Villa Emo at Fanzolo and Villa Barbaro at Maser (both Palladian). And it is diffuse industry: the foothills are the manufacturing district of Made in Italy.
For tourism it is the ideal base: white lanes among vineyards, farm-stays in villas, medieval markets (Marostica with its living-chess game), and every evening the same view — the plain below, the mountains above.
The Monte Grappa massif is a limestone island rising from the Venetian plain like an altar. Not a true Alpine chain but a single block, 1,775 metres at the summit, ringed on three sides by rivers and visible across the whole eastern Po plain.
After the rout of Caporetto in October 1917, the Italian front entrenched on the Piave–Grappa–Asiago line. For a year the massif became the bastion of the Italian army: the last obstacle before Venice. Three great battles were fought here, with over 25,000 Italian and 10,000 Austro-Hungarian dead. The trenches, observation posts and rock galleries are still visitable. On the summit, the Cima Grappa Military Memorial (1935) holds the tombs of 22,910 soldiers of both armies.
The Grappa is one of northern Italy's most loved hiking destinations. In 2021 it became a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. From Bassano you drive up in 40 minutes (the wartime Cadorna road), or climb on foot and by bike from Romano, Pove, Crespano, Borso.
The southern slope of the Monte Grappa massif, above Borso del Grappa and the hamlet of Semonzo, is one of Europe's most famous free-flight sites. The shape of the mountain — a great isolated prow plunging onto the plain — generates near-perfect thermals usable much of the year.
From the take-offs at 1,000 and 1,500 metres, paragliders and hang-gliders launch every day; the landing field is in the meadows of Semonzo. National and international competitions have been held here, and several schools offer tandem flights with an instructor: the most spectacular way to see the bridge, the Brenta and the whole Pedemontana from above.
The Brenta Cycle Path — officially the Valsugana cycle path — is one of the most loved tourist routes of the Veneto and Trentino. From Trento to the sea in about 180 km, following the old Valsugana railway and the river banks.
From Trento, along Lake Caldonazzo, down the Trentino Valsugana to Borgo, then Grigno, Primolano, Cismon, Valstagna, Bassano. From Bassano it continues across the plain to Padua and on to Stra (Venice).
The Bassano–Primolano stretch is the most spectacular: 35 km in the Brenta gorge, with villages clinging to the walls, tunnels and little bridges over the river.
Between Bassano and Primolano the Brenta flows in a 35-km gorge closed between the walls of the Asiago plateau and the Monte Grappa massif. It is called the Canale di Brenta, or simply "el canale".
It is a world apart. Its villages — Solagna, San Nazario, Cismon, Valstagna, Carpanè — are wedged onto the few flat metres between river and rock. For centuries life turned around three things: timber, tobacco grown on the terraces, and emigration. The raftsmen of the Canale were famous across the Republic.
Today it is a nearly depopulated zone, but one of the most intact landscapes of the Veneto: the walls are crossed by spectacular via ferratas, the river is full of trout.
In the Brenta gorge the river is not just scenery: it is a playground. And just to the south, where the water re-emerges from the mountain, open the most famous caves in the Veneto.
Valstagna has for decades been the heart of river sports in the North-East. The Brenta between Cismon and Valstagna, with its regular rapids, has hosted international canoe and kayak races and is today a playground for everyone: rafting, hydrospeed, canoeing, SUP and guided descents suited even to families.
At Oliero (Valbrenta), at the foot of the gorge walls, the underground river re-emerges in an amphitheatre of emerald-green springs. The best known, the Cova del Camposo, is visited by boat. The Caves Park, created in the 19th century by the Bassano naturalist Alberto Parolini, blends speleology, botany and history.
Every year, on the second-to-last Sunday of July, the Brenta at Valstagna fills with rafts again. It is the Palio delle Zattere, a historical re-enactment unique in the world, created by the Pro Loco in 1987: the nine districts of the village build their own rafts and race down about 3 km, from San Gaetano to the Ponte di Rialto, through rapids and skill trials.
It is not invented folklore: it is the living memory of the raftsmen — the menadàs — who for centuries floated timber down to Venice.
The Brenta's rapids shaped not only raftsmen but champions. On the waters of the Valstagna Canoe Club grew Pierpaolo Ferrazzi, born in Bassano in 1965: at Barcelona 1992 he won the Olympic gold in K1 slalom — Italy's first Olympic canoe/kayak gold — adding bronze at Sydney 2000.
Among the figures Bassano has given the world are also the rally world champion Miki Biasion, the singer Francesca Michielin and the entrepreneur Renzo Rosso (Diesel).
Above the Brenta gorge, at an average altitude of 1,000 metres, lies the Asiago Plateau, historically known as the Sette Comuni (Seven Communes). A world apart: a vast karst plain ringed by mountains, with its own tongue — Cimbrian, a medieval Germanic dialect — and a history of autonomy reaching back to the 14th century.
Bassano is the apex of a quadrilateral of fortified towns among the finest in the Veneto. Within half an hour by car you pass from one ring of walls to another: castles, rampart walks, intact medieval squares.
7 km away, the "chess town": two castles joined by walls climbing the hill, and the famous living-chess game in the square. Home of the IGP cherry.
13 km away, the Venetian fortress with the rare elliptical plan: 1.5 km of medieval walls walkable along an elevated rampart walk, unique in Europe.
18 km away, "the town of a hundred horizons": fortress, walls and the village loved by Carducci, Duse and Freya Stark, in the heart of Asolo Prosecco.
25 km away, the walled square that gave birth to Giorgione: towers, moat and the master's famous Pala in the cathedral.
The Ezzelini Castle and medieval walls, with the rampart walk walkable again: the gateway town between plain and mountain.
Marostica, Bassano, Cittadella, Castelfranco and Asolo form an easy ring, ideal also by bike through the foothill countryside.
The Veneto is the region of walls. Beyond Bassano, the whole circuit of fortified towns is worth the journey: Montagnana, with one of the best-preserved medieval walls in Europe; Soave, dominated by its Scaliger castle among vineyards; Monselice and Este, at the foot of the Euganean Hills; Lazise on Lake Garda; and Valeggio sul Mincio with its monumental Visconti Bridge. Together with Cittadella, Castelfranco, Marostica and Asolo they form the great network of Veneto walled towns.
"Bassano del Grappa" exit (the A31 "Valdastico"). Ten minutes from the exit to the bridge.
1 hour from Venice, 50 min from Padua, 35 from Vicenza. Station 10 minutes' walk from the bridge.
Venice Marco Polo (60 km), Treviso (50 km), Verona (110 km).
From Trento in 2 days, from Venice in a day and a half. Bassano is the mid-point.
HM52 / X-BOX Hotel offer sustainable timber hospitality in the foothills. xboxhotel.com →
White asparagus of Bassano DOP (spring), bigoli with duck, baccalà alla vicentina, Asiago DOP, and of course Nardini grappa.