Few Italian regions span so much in so little distance.
Go in April to June and September to October.
- Fly into
- Venice (VCE), Verona (VRN), Treviso (TSF)
- Capital
- Venice
- Size
- 18,345 km² (7,083 sq mi)
- People
- 4.9 million
Veneto reaches from the Adriatic lagoon, where Venice floats on its forest of pilings, up across the Po plain to the limestone spires of the Dolomites above Cortina and Belluno. Between them lie Verona on the Adige, the Palladian villas scattered through the Vicenza countryside, Padua's frescoed chapels and university, and the steep, terraced Prosecco hills around Conegliano and Valdobbiadene.
The Venetian table is generous and unfussy. Plump bigoli pasta turned on a bronze press, Sopressa Vicentina salami, the great wheels of Grana Padano and Asiago, and wines that run from crisp Soave to the velvet sweetness of Recioto della Valpolicella. A glass of Prosecco at dusk is less a drink than a daily rite.
Come in late spring or early autumn, when the lagoon light is gentle, the vineyards turn gold and the summer crowds thin from the great cities.
What to see in Veneto
Save the ones you want and we'll find which of our routes reaches the most in the fewest nights.
Padua Botanical Garden
The world's oldest academic botanical garden still on its original site, laid out in a circle in 1545.
Villa La Rotonda
Vicenza Palladio's four-fronted domed villa outside Vicenza, the most imitated house design in the world.
Scrovegni Chapel
Padua Giotto’s 1303–1305 fresco cycle fills a compact Padua chapel with a starry vault, a sweeping sacred narrative and fourteen monochrome allegories.
Teatro Olimpico
Vicenza Palladio's last work: an indoor theatre with a 1585 forced-perspective stage set still standing.
Tofane
Cortina d'Ampezzo Cortina's three Dolomite giants, rose-lit at dusk, with a cable car to 3,244 meters and Olympic ski slopes.
Prosecco Hills of Valdobbiadene
The hand-terraced UNESCO ridges that produce Prosecco Superiore.
Doge's Palace
Venice’s palace of government leads from carved arcades to state chambers, then across the Bridge of Sighs to the prisons.
Grand Canal
Venice’s principal waterway, curving between the lagoon and St Mark’s Basin past palaces, museums and the Salute.
The short answer
- Where to sleep
- Padua, Venice, Cortina d'Ampezzo
- At least
- 10 nights
- Within a day out
- 7 of these 8
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How many nights in Veneto?
Choose your nights and the route redraws: where to sleep, what to see, and the towns an easy day out from each base.
3 nights in Veneto: Verona for 1 and Venice for 2.5 nights in Veneto: Verona for 2 and Venice for 3.7 nights in Veneto: Verona for 2, Padua for 2 and Venice for 3.10 nights in Veneto: Verona for 3, Padua for 2, Venice for 3 and Cortina d'Ampezzo for 2.
Add your first day and each link opens on that stop's dates.
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Where to stay in Veneto
Each stop with what to see and, where we have them, a day out and the hotel we'd book.
The city of Romeo and Juliet on a bend of the Adige, where a first-century Roman arena still hosts its summer opera festival under the stars.
Self-catering style suites with kitchenettes on Via Oberdan, a short walk from the Arena and Piazza Bra, for independent stays in Verona.
Check dates: Oriana Suites VeronaMore in Verona
An eighteenth-century palazzo hotel on Via Mazzini, a short walk from the Arena, with a rooftop terrace, for sightseeing on foot in Verona.
Check dates: Hotel AccademiaOpera Relais de Charme
Self-catering apartments themed around operas, a short walk from the Arena in Verona's old centre, suiting couples and families who want a kitchenette.
Check dates: Opera Relais de Charme
70 km from Verona as the crow flies
A city of learning since the thirteenth century, home to Italy's oldest university garden and Giotto's revolutionary frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel.
- Day out
- Vicenza
Massimago
A tiny adults-only guesthouse of three suites in a medieval building in central Padua, with frescoes, beamed ceilings and a garden.
More in Padua
A quiet hotel ten minutes' walk from Padua's centre and station, with breakfast by the garden and private parking, for business or leisure.
Check dates: Hotel PataviumA small, renovated hotel facing Prato della Valle in Padua, with simple contemporary rooms close to Santa Giustina and the botanical garden.
Check dates: Al Prato
105 km from Verona as the crow flies
35 km from Padua as the crow flies
A city built on water across 118 islands, where the Grand Canal sweeps past Gothic palaces and St.
- See
- Doge's Palace · Grand Canal
A small hotel in Santa Croce, with rooms themed on Venetian history, a private art gallery and a garden courtyard.
Check dates: Santa Croce Boutique HotelMore in Venice
A restored palazzo on Calle Fiubera, a few minutes from St Mark's, linked to the Rosa Salva pastry shops and furnished with beamed rooms.
Check dates: Rosa Salva HotelRadisson Collection Hotel, Palazzo Nani Venice
A restored sixteenth-century palazzo on the quiet Cannaregio waterfront, with contemporary design inside and a restaurant on site.
Check dates: Radisson Collection Hotel, Palazzo Nani Venice
125 km from Venice as the crow flies
The Queen of the Dolomites, cradled in a high valley beneath the three Tofane peaks.
- See
- Tofane
A ski-in, ski-out Alpine hotel at Pocol above Cortina, with a pool, spa and Dolomite views, suiting skiers, families and wellness stays.
Check dates: Hotel Tofana CortinaMore in Cortina d'Ampezzo
Camina Suite & Spa
A small twelve-room hotel in Cortina with a top-floor spa overlooking the Tofane, with saunas and a Turkish bath, for a cosy mountain base.
Check dates: Camina Suite & SpaA historic grand hotel close to the centre of Cortina, at the foot of the Dolomites, with a spa for evenings after the slopes.
Check dates: Grand Hotel Savoia Cortina d’Ampezzo
Other places to stay
The Glam Boutique Hotel & Apt
A small boutique hotel with fewer than thirty rooms and suites, a short walk from the Teatro Olimpico in central Vicenza.
Check dates: The Glam Boutique Hotel & AptHotel Tofana Cortina
A ski-in, ski-out Alpine hotel at Pocol above Cortina, with a pool, spa and Dolomite views, suiting skiers, families and wellness stays.
Check dates: Hotel Tofana CortinaCountry House B&B Il Melo
A small countryside B&B on the wooded edge of Vicenza, with three rooms, a garden and hill views, five minutes' drive from the centre.
Check dates in VicenzaCamina Suite & Spa
A small twelve-room hotel in Cortina with a top-floor spa overlooking the Tofane, with saunas and a Turkish bath, for a cosy mountain base.
Check dates: Camina Suite & Spa
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A traditional dinner from Veneto
Every course is one the region actually serves. Change any of them and the wine, the timing and the shopping list follow.
Antipasto
Baccalà Mantecato
Soaked stockfish is whipped with oil into a soft, fibrous cream and served with white polenta.
First course
Risi e Bisi
Venice’s spring rite of rice and young peas, looser than a risotto, thicker than a soup, sweetened with a broth made from the pods themselves.
Main course
Fegato alla veneziana
Thin slices of calf liver quickly cooked with soft onions, a splash of wine vinegar and a little butter.
Dessert
Zaleti with raisins
Small Venetian cornmeal biscuits with raisins and lemon zest, cut into diamonds and finished with icing sugar.
What to pour
A young Soave from the hills east of Verona: Garganega’s freshness and light almond note sit well with the sweet peas and the butter.
Soave
Start the Zaleti with raisins first: 3 hr 15 min.
Taste it there
Rialto market and Venice's food stops
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What Veneto is known for
You will find these here and nowhere else.
On the first Sunday of September the vaporetti give way to Caterina Cornaro's gilded parade, then two-oar gondolini race up the Grand Canal to Ca' Foscari.
A swampy field south of old Padua became an elliptical canal with an island, and 78 stone figures now stand guard around it in two rings.
Hours of hot work turn honey, egg white, sugar and almonds into mandorlato, Cologna Veneta's brittle white Christmas bar on its sheet of rice paper.
The ridges of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene
The Prosecco Hills of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene form a specific cultural landscape in Treviso province. Steep ridges, grassy vineyard terraces called ciglioni, woods and villages give it a form beyond the wine label. The World Heritage designation belongs to that defined landscape, not every place where Prosecco can be produced.
Wines from VenetoSources and citations (1)
At Christmas
Verona’s pandoro gives Christmas baking its tall star shape and soft yellow crumb. For the savoury table, bigoli in salsa and baccalà alla vicentina offer different preparations linked to Veneto. The Vicenza dish uses dried stockfish despite its local name, so check the fish’s prepared state before following the cooking schedule. Choose the courses first, then leave each method its proper time.
Where next
Trentino-Alto Adige
Trentino-Alto Adige is Italy at its most Alpine, where the rose-pink towers of the Dolomites rise over vineyards and apple orchards.
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Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Italy's northeastern corner, where the country meets Central Europe.
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Emilia-Romagna
Italy's culinary heartland runs from the Po plain to the Adriatic, the land that gave the world Parmigiano-Reggiano, prosciutto di Parma, and fresh egg pasta.
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