Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
10am-noon & 3-7pm Sat & Sun)
you can explore Asolo's Roman past and wander through a small
collection of paintings, including a pair of Tintoretto portraits. The museum also includes
rooms devoted to Eleanora Duse (1858-1924) and British traveller and writer Freya Stark
(1893-1993), who retreated to Asolo between Middle Eastern forays. Try to come on the
second Sunday of the month, when an outdoor antiques market takes over the town.
BASSANO DEL GRAPPA
Bassano del Grappa sits with charming simplicity on the banks of the River Brenta as it
winds its way free from Alpine foothills. The town is famous above all for its namesake
spirit, grappa - a fiery distillation made from the discarded skins, pulp, seeds and stems
from wine-making. At the
Poli Museo della Grappa
( 0424 52 44 26;
www.grappa.com
; Via Gamba 6;
9am-7.30pm)
F
you can explore four centuries of production and enjoy a free tasting.
But there's more to Bassano than you can see in the bottom of a grappa glass. Its
Museo
Civico
MAP
GOOGLE MAP
( 0424 51 99 01;
www.museibassano.it
; Piazza Garibaldi 34; adult/reduced €4/3;
9am-7pm Tue-Sat, 10.30am-1pm & 3-6pm Sun)
is beautifully housed around the cloisters of the
Convento di San Francesco
. Endowed in 1828 by the naturalist Giambattista Brocchi, it has an
extensive archaeological collection alongside 500 paintings, including masterpieces such
as the 1545
Flight into Egypt
from local son Jacopo Bassano.
Spanning the river is Palladio's photogenic 1569 covered bridge, the
Ponte degli Alpini
.
Fragile as the wooden structure seems, it is cleverly engineered to withstand the rush of
spring melt waters from Monte Grappa. It's always been critical in times of war: Napole-
on bivouacked here for many months and in the Great War the Alpine brigades adopted
the bridge as their emblem. Hundreds of them died on the slopes of
Monte Grappa
(1775m),
where Ernest Hemingway drove his ambulance and an enormous tiered memorial now
commemorates the sacrifice of over 12,000 Italian and 10,000 Austro-Hungarian soldiers.
TOWN
LA STRADA DI PROSECCO
Running through a landscape of rolling vineyards,
La Strada di Prosecco
(
www.coneglianovaldobbiadene.it
) is a
driving route that takes you from Conegliano to Valdobbiadene via some of the region's best wineries. The web-
site provides an itinerary, background information on
prosecco
, and details about stops along the way.
CASTELFRANCO VENETO
Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco (aka Giorgione) was one of the great masters of the
High Renaissance. Born in the picturesque walled town of Castelfranco, he was a contem-
TOWN
