Treviso

As peaceful as the placid rhythm of is canals and the River Sile that runs through it, Treviso is a smaller version of Venice, a perfect blend of the age-old genius of man and the surrounding Venetian countryside. From here you can travel quickly and easily to the sea or the mountains, and modern accommodation facilities make a holiday in Treviso an increasingly attractive proposition if you want to explore this province of the Veneto.

The large historic centre of Treviso, made of small intricate and irregular streets, has a medieval and late-Gothic imprint, with important and prized buildings from different eras and styles. Particularly worthy of note are Treviso’s beautiful private homes, embellished with beautiful painted decorations. Definitely not to be missed is the seventeenth century house on Piazza Rinaldi, known as Osteria della Colonna, with a double loggia and featuring frescoes depicting the Triumphs of Petrarch. Concentrated along Via Collalto and Via Palestro, there are a number of beautiful houses to admire, featuring Romanesque façades and paintings and amazingly harmonious architectural forms. One of these is Casa Trevigiana, which is now home to the Museum of Ethnography.

The city centre, the real heart of Treviso, is Piazza dei Signori. This picturesque square is bound on three sides by municipal buildings. North of the square, also known as Piazza Maggiore or Piazza della Berlina, stands the Palazzo di Podestà, dating from the late fifteenth century. Within the square you’ll notice many depictions of lions holding an open Gospel, a symbol of the Venetian Republic. Also in the square is the Palazzo dei Trecento, an imposing structure in Romanesque style, with exposed brick walls, which once housed the members of the City Council and Higher Council.

A short distance from here is the Duomo, which stands on the square of the same name. The religious building features seven domes, all covered with copper, five of them in the central nave, the other two covering the chapels. Outside, a splendid walled marble bas-relief, on a buttress of the side apse, depicts a Bacchant and is a Roman masterpiece dating from the first century. Behind the cathedral is the Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art.

From Piazza Duomo, walking down Via Calmaggiore, you’ll come to the Loggia dei Cavalieri, a unique building of its kind in Europe, given its irregular quadrilateral plan with a tiled four-pitch roof. Built in the second half of the thirteenth century, when Treviso was ruled by Andrea da Perugia, three of the four sides of the Loggia are dominated by five arches standing on Istrian stone pillars and capitals. From the Loggia dei Cavalieri, descending in a southerly direction, on the left bank of the Sile River, pay a visit to the Chiesa di San Nicolò, built by the Dominicans with substantial legacies from Pope Benedict XI.

The urban history of Treviso is one of a city born on water. The River Botteniga flows from the north and splits into two branches just before the Ponte del Pria bridge. The first forms the Fossa Nord, the other divides again into three "Cagnani" (Cagnano della Roggia, Cagnano dei Buranelli and Cagnano della Pescheria). All these canals flow through the city and end up in the Sile, which also snakes its way through the city. Along these waterways are some of the most picturesque places in the city, including the Buranelli, with willow trees trailing their branches in the Cagnano, the Pescheria, famous for its colourful fruit and fish stalls, and the Riviera Santa Margherita, the ancient site of the city's harbour on the Sile.

Not to be missed is also the Sile Regional Nature Reserve, where visitors can explore the three diverse environments through which the river flows. Discovering Veneto and its beauty is simple and convenient thanks to our holiday packages in Treviso.