Venice in high summer can feel crowded and airless. Fortunately, Veneto offers an array of easy day trips that swap the city’s crush for cool hills, shaded cafés and quiet canals.
1.
Trieste
(Just over two hours by train)
The Austro-Hungarian outpost dubbed “Vienna by the sea” joined Italy a century ago but its roots still show. Visit Libreria San Marco and the century-old Caffè Torinese for a flavour. Pastry shops such as La Bomboniera and Pasticceria Pirona serve sachertorte and Viennese sweets while the Portopiccolo spa, built into an old stone quarry on the sea, has steam pools facing the bay.
2.
Bassano del Grappa
(An hour and 15 minutes by train)
A charming cluster of red, medieval roofs overlooking the covered wooden bridge of the Ponte degli Alpini, this town on the river Brenta gives its name to the famous spirit best enjoyed at Tipic bar or the 1779 Grapperia Nardini distillery. Stock up at the delicatessen of El Bocon del Prete or the Bottega del Baccalà for the local dried-cod delicacy of the same name.
3.
Chioggia
(50-minute drive)
Crisscrossed by canals, Chioggia earned the mantle “Little Venice” without suffering the crowded consequences and featured in Luca Guadagnino’s 2020 film We Are Who We Are. Try a boat trip from Piazzetta Vigo to peruse the island’s lace shops and bustling fish market, where restaurants such as Al Bersagliere serve the catch of the day.
4.
Bonotto Foundation
(An hour and 10 minutes by car)
The largest collection of fluxus art (a movement from the 1960s and 1970s) in Italy can be found at the factory of the Bonotto textile company. Owner Luigi Bonotto befriended the late German artist Joseph Beuys, Yoko Ono and a slew of creatives who came to do informal residencies next to his Vicenza factory-turned-museum.
5.
Bagni Alberoni
(Less than an hour by boat and bus)
In Italy, beach clubs define seaside summers and few are as iconic as Bagni Alberoni (the backdrop to Thomas Mann’s seminal 1912 novella, Death in Venice). Located on the southernmost beach of the Lido, its stretch of sand is lined with cabins, umbrellas and striped deckchairs. Alberoni’s restaurant serves Venetian fare, including homemade spaghetti with mussels and clams.
6.
Tomba Brion and Museo Gypsotheca Antonio Canova
(The former is a 70-minute drive)
Just a stone’s throw from each other in towns beyond Treviso are masterpieces by two vastly different luminaries of Italian art. Carlo Scarpa designed the Tomba Brion cemetery in 1968 – his last, and some say best, work. Nearby, Canova’s gallery of plaster casts displays the romantically inspired figures by the neoclassical sculptor.
7.
Villa Feltrinelli and Lefay Garda Resort & Spa
(A two-hour and 30-minute drive)
D H Lawrence called Garda “one of the most beautiful places on Earth” and the 19th-century Villa Feltrinelli is perhaps Italy’s most tranquil and charming location. Close by, Lefay Garda is a great spa in which to unwind.
8.
Vigne di San Pietro
(One hour 20 minutes away by car)
Veneto is wine country. A greater share of Italy’s grapes are grown here than in any other region. Pencil in a few niche vineyards to explore what’s most distinctive about the producers here and start with Venissa, on the Mazzorbo island of Venice, where the Michelin-starred restaurant serves fish and vegetables surrounded by its vineyards. Further afield, the Vigne di San Pietro grows some of Veneto’s best natural wine near Lake Garda.
