Things to do in Veneto

Veneto runs from the Dolomites down to the Adriatic. Venice sits right at the seaward edge of it. Most visitors land there and never leave the lagoon, which misses most of the region.

Padua, the Prosecco hills and half of Lake Garda all belong to Veneto too.

What sits beyond the lagoon

Padua is thirty minutes from Venice by train, a university town with Giotto's frescoes sealed inside the Scrovegni Chapel. It still works as a city, not a museum. Venice, these days, cannot say that.

North of Treviso, the Prosecco hills rise into a UNESCO-listed patchwork of vine terraces around Conegliano and Valdobbiadene. The land keeps climbing north. It reaches the Dolomites and Cortina d'Ampezzo, host of the 1956 Winter Olympics.

Lake Garda's eastern shore belongs to Veneto, not Lombardy. Bardolino and Lazise sit here, wine towns with their own lakefront rather than Sirmione's crowds.

How the region divides by ground

• The plain. Flat, hot and humid in summer, built for farming and easy trains between towns.
• The hills. Prosecco country, best toured slowly, by car or bike, tasting as you go.
• The mountains. Skiing in winter, hiking in summer, a different climate entirely from the coast.
• The lake. Boat trips and lakeside towns, warmer and calmer than the sea.

Practical

• A car helps. Padua and Venice run fine by train, but the hills and the lake shore reward driving.
• Season in the hills. Harvest runs through September; spring keeps the vine rows green and the roads quieter.
• Season in the mountains. Snow holds from December to March; summer brings hiking and far fewer people.
• Weather split. The plain passes 30C in July and August; Cortina, at 1,224 metres, sits in the low 20s the same month.
• Getting to Cortina. No train reaches it directly; buses run from Venice and take a few hours.