An Expressions tailor-made holiday to Veneto incorporates the beauty, culture and heritage of this popular Italian region. Like its northern neighbour, Friuli, Veneto is cradled by the Dolomites to the north, the Venetian planes to the south, and the Adriatic to the east, giving it an almost unsurpassed scenic, cultural and architectural variety. Unlike Friuli, however, Veneto is one of the most visited regions in Italy, with Venice the undoubted jewel in its preposterously beautiful crown. While most people race through Veneto in their rush to get to Venice, the region is a veritable treasure trove of beautiful towns, many of them blessedly devoid of tourist crowds, who are elsewhere on the Venetian lagoon. Of these, Padua is a gem of a cobbled university town littered with Giotoa frescoes, Verona, home to Romeo and Juliet, is one of the prettiest ancient cities in Italy, Vicenza is the stunning ‘laboratory’ of Andrea Palladio, one of the most influential architects in history, and in Treviso, Veneto has a wonderful, scaled down version of Venice, complete with beautiful canals. That said, with flights into Venice, you could happily spend every holiday for the rest of your life in Veneto's celebrated capital. A staggeringly spectacular town, it does of course get busy in summer, but with no cars in the city centre, Byron's ‘fair city of the heart' has a peaceful, festive air even in high season, with a string of quieter, but equally enchanting, fascinating islands scattered around the lagoon, and an excellent network of ferries and vaporetti taking you there.
Frequently Asked Questions
Most visitors race through the Veneto in their hurry to reach Venice, which means the region's other art cities remain remarkably free of crowds. Padua is a cobbled university town whose Cappella degli Scrovegni holds Giotto's frescoes intact, and rewards several unhurried hours rather than a fleeting visit. Vicenza is, in effect, Andrea Palladio's laboratory, its historic centre and surrounding countryside laid out with his villas and civic buildings. Treviso offers a scaled-down version of Venice itself, with genuine canals and none of the crowds, while Verona, beyond its Roman amphitheatre and Shakespearean associations, is one of the prettiest ancient cities in Italy in its own right. Each of these can anchor two or three nights on its own, and together they make the case for treating the Veneto as a region to explore properly, rather than simply the hinterland one passes through on the way to St Mark's Square.
Palladio is one of the most influential architects in history, and the Veneto is where his ideas were built, tested and refined, making it a genuine pilgrimage for anyone with an interest in architecture. Vicenza itself is essentially his laboratory, its centre still built around his civic and domestic work, and the surrounding countryside is scattered with the villas that made his reputation: La Rotonda, Villa Emo, Villa Godi and Villa Valmarana among them, each built for a different Venetian noble family and each subtly different in its handling of the same classical language. We can arrange a private guide who specialises in his work, and base a stay at a hotel such as Villa Michelangelo, itself built in the Palladian style just a few miles from Vicenza, or combine a Palladian-focused itinerary with Padua and Verona for a fuller sense of the region's architecture beyond his villas alone.
Almost every town in the Veneto is built around a tower of some kind, whether a church campanile or a civic bell tower, and together they give the region a very distinctive silhouette, quite different from the domes and cupolas that define central Italy. St Mark's Campanile is the most famous, rebuilt after its collapse in 1902 and still the best vantage point over Venice and its lagoon, but the tradition runs throughout the region: Verona's Torre dei Lamberti offers a similarly commanding view over the city and the River Adige, while smaller hill towns such as Asolo and the fairy-tale, wine-producing castle town of Soave are built quite literally around their towers, which served both a defensive and a devotional purpose. For clients with an interest in architecture, climbing a handful of these towers across a single itinerary gives a genuinely different way of understanding how the Veneto's towns were built and defended.
The Veneto's smaller towns keep up a number of traditions that most visitors never see, precisely because they are not part of the well-worn Venice itinerary. The tiny walled town of Marostica stages a human chess game, the Partita a Scacchi, with the pieces played by residents in Renaissance costume in the main piazza, a genuine spectacle rather than a recreation staged for tourists. Feltre holds its Palio in August, with medieval games and horse racing, while Treviso runs a summer festival of dance, poetry and music away from the Venetian crowds. Venice's own Carnival, in the weeks before Lent, transforms the city into something even more theatrical than usual, with masked figures throughout its squares and canals. We keep track of these dates each year and are always glad to build a stay around a particular festival, rather than leaving it to chance.
Wine and architecture sit unusually close together in the Veneto, and a well-planned itinerary can move between the two within a single day. Valpolicella, in the hills above Verona, is a landscape of family wineries producing some of Italy's most distinctive reds, and estates such as Villa Cordevigo, an 18th-century Venetian villa with its own hundred hectares of vineyard between Lake Garda and Verona, allow a stay to combine Michelin-starred dining with private cellar visits. Soave, a fairy-tale castle town east of Verona, produces Italy's best-known white alongside its own architectural charm, while Conegliano, north of Treviso, is the heart of Prosecco country. We would typically base a Veneto wine holiday around two or three centres, perhaps Verona or Vicenza for the architecture and a countryside estate for the wine, with private tastings arranged at each stage rather than a standard winery tour.
Our bespoke, luxury hotel holidays can be
● Single centre or multi-centre● Long or short stays
● Combine a number of different hotels in different regions
● Utilise a variety of transport arrangements to Italy and within Italy, combining flights, hire-car, rail, ferries and private transfers
Our special interest holidays to Veneto
● Wine-tasting for individuals● Food and wine holidays
● Garden tours for small groups
● Garden holidays for individuals
● Cookery holidays for individuals and small groups
● Cultural tours for individuals
● Private guided sightseeing
● Art, history and heritage holidays
Included in all our holidays
● Concierge service● Handcrafted helpful hints and local information provided with all our holidays
● Personal service by your sales consultant who looks after all aspects of your holiday
Call us on 01392 441245
Highlights of Veneto
Veneto has a wealth of culture and interest to immerse yourself in, including: Venice carnival, an extravagant pageant making the city even more impossibly beautiful than normal; the islands of the lagoon, including Murano, famous for its glass-makers, whose workshops you can visit, and Burano, with its wonderfully colourful facades; Treviso, a scaled down Venice, great escaping the high-season crowds; Soave, a fairy-tale castle town famous for its wines; Albano, a classic 19th century thermal town; Lake Garda, flanked by lemon and olive groves, with the Dolomites reflected in its lakes, and 7,227ft Monte Baldo behind it, which you can reach by cable car; tiny village of Marostica, which stages a human chess game with ‘pieces' dressed in Renaissance costumes; Valpollicella, a lush valley strewn with family wineries; Padua and its Giotto frescoes; the Romanesque abbey of San Pietro di Foletto in Follina; numerous Palladian villas, including Bararao, Villa Emo, La Rotonda, Villa Godi and Villa Valmarana; Cima's masterpiece of an altarpiece in Conegliano cathedral; the August Palio in Feltre, with medieval games, horse racing and celebrations; Treviso's festival of dance, poetry and music in August; birdwatching on the Venice lagoon and Po delta; local cuisine, including Spaghetti alle Vongole and Prosecco from Conegliano; the fishing port of Chioggia.
Veneto travel information
Trains connect the major towns in the area, and there are also bus connections between towns and villages. A hire car would be useful if you're exploring smaller places and is included with our Veneto hotels. Note, however, if you just stay in Venice, a car is of no use at all, and a superb network of public boats and vaporetti takes you around the city and lagoon.By air
Fly to Verona with daily flights with British Airways from London Gatwick or to Venice with daily flights with British Airways and EasyJet from Gatwick. Most of the hotels in the Veneto and this region are no more than a couple of hours from one of the airports.Car hire
We include a hire-car will all our holidays the Veneto as unless you plan to stay solely in Venice, you really do need a car to make the most of your holiday in this region. However, if you want to combine a stay in the countryside here with perhaps a few days in Venice then we can arrange for you to pick up or drop off the car after or before your stay in the city.Rail travel
In addition to holidays by air or by car, you may also be interested in holidays by rail (including the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express and an overnight sleeper service from Paris to Italy).Self-drive
With your own car, the Veneto can be reached easily with two overnight stops from the UK, perhaps in Alsace and then the Italian Lakes. We can make the hotel reservations for you in France as well.Our bespoke, luxury hotel holidays can be
● Single centre or multi-centre● Long or short stays
● Combine a number of different hotels in different regions
● Utilise a variety of transport arrangements to Italy and within Italy, combining flights, hire-car, rail, ferries and private transfers
Our special interest holidays to Veneto
● Wine-tasting for individuals● Food and wine holidays
● Garden tours for small groups
● Garden holidays for individuals
● Cookery holidays for individuals and small groups
● Cultural tours for individuals
● Private guided sightseeing
● Art, history and heritage holidays
Included in all our holidays
● Concierge service● Handcrafted helpful hints and local information provided with all our holidays
● Personal service by your sales consultant who looks after all aspects of your holiday
Call us on 01392 441245
Here you will find a map of Veneto showing the locations of the hotels that we offer
Our bespoke, luxury hotel holidays can be
● Single centre or multi-centre● Long or short stays
● Combine a number of different hotels in different regions
● Utilise a variety of transport arrangements to Italy and within Italy, combining flights, hire-car, rail, ferries and private transfers
Our special interest holidays to Veneto
● Wine-tasting for individuals● Food and wine holidays
● Garden tours for small groups
● Garden holidays for individuals
● Cookery holidays for individuals and small groups
● Cultural tours for individuals
● Private guided sightseeing
● Art, history and heritage holidays
Included in all our holidays
● Concierge service● Handcrafted helpful hints and local information provided with all our holidays
● Personal service by your sales consultant who looks after all aspects of your holiday
