The matchless beauty of Orta San Giulio.
Do you want to travel to Italy? Do you feel that you still have a lot to know about this fascinating country? We travel north, from east to west, and we don't stop at its three great cities: Milan, Venice and Turin.
We know that you already know them, and that is what this trip is about, discovering some of the story towns of the north where, why not, stay for a long time to live. Let's travel!
Bard in the Aosta Valley.
BARD
The Aosta Valley , 78km from Turin, reveals one of the most beautiful landscapes in northern Italy. Perched on its mountains, 467 meters high, the Fort of Bard is the most significant monument of this small municipality halfway between Milan and Geneva.
The history of the fort, an important bastion of the nineteenth century, has illustrious protagonists such as the French writer Stendhal and Napoleon that together they lived through one of the best-known battles in the fort. The French writer, who was only 17 years old, described it as a baptism of fire in his autobiography 'La vie de Henry Brulard'. Bard was known in 1800 for his Spartan resistance against Napoleon's troops.
In addition to the Bard fortification, the municipality has a medieval old town also rehabilitated where residential buildings from the XV-XVI centuries are preserved. At Christmas parties its manger is popular, in addition to its carnival and gastronomic days in August.
The canals of Treviso.
** TREVISO **
The city of Treviso is one of the best kept treasures in the Gulf of Venice. You just need to take a train from Venice to Treviso. 30 minutes away you will find a city of 8,000 inhabitants with a beautiful historic center that you can easily see in a day.
We are not ironic when we say that Treviso has almost all the churches and monasteries of northern Italy -more than 10-, most within its walled area. In its historic center you will find Piazza dei Signori , always full of life, and the Palace of the Trecento , built in the 12th century, in which you will also be able to recognize some of the scars of the bombings in the Second World War. As well as the Fontana delle Tette.
You can not lose yourself the Duomo or the Cathedral of Treviso , the Palace of the Podesta and the University building. But it is definitely recommended. a walk along the canals through which the Botteniga River flows . The Middle Cagnan or Buranelli is the most famous.
Gardone Riviera in the Lombardy region.
GARDONE RIVIERA
On the banks of Lake Garda , Gardone Riviera is one of the main summer towns in the Lombardy region since 1879 when the current one was built Grand Hotel di Gardone .
The proximity to Lago di Garda, its elegant 17th century villas and the pleasant microclimate are some of its main attractions. So is your Botanical Garden of more than 8,000 m², owned by the André Heller Foundation, and the Vittoriale degli italiani citadel, a complex of houses, buildings and gardens, built by the poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, together with the architect Giancarlo Maroni between 1921 and 1938.
Nevertheless, Gardone Riviera is internationally known as the perfect relaxing getaway if what you want is to take walks along the lake shore, listen to live music or have a romantic dinner in one of its elegant restaurants.
Orta San Giulio, a fabled town.
ORTA SAN GIULIO
The Lake Orta surrounds the beautiful landscape of Orta San Giulio, this small municipality of 2,000 inhabitants in the Piedmont region . Its charm lies in a town of picturesque alleys and the island of San Gulio 400 meters from Orta and about 250 meters wide.
From one end to the other you will find the chapel of Sacred Mount of Orta , Unesco World Heritage, the town hall and the old town with the typical stone houses of the region.
A boat ride from Orta will take you to the island where the 12th century Basilica is located. , the cloistered seminary of Benedictine monks , built in 1844; and also the **frescoes of the San Giulio restaurant**, an 18th century building.
The legendary municipality of Sabbioneta.
** KNOWLEDGE **
This town in the region of Lombardia and the banks of the river Po You will like it if you like history and architecture. Romans, Jews and Christians have left their mark on sabbionet . Although surely the most important left her Vespasian Gonzaga Colonna , an Italian nobleman, who founded it in the 16th century according to the Renaissance principles of what an ideal villa should be, which is why it is UNESCO World Heritage.
The wall shelters a hexagonal-shaped citadel where you can admire the Doge's Palace , the Palazzo Giardino and the All'Antica Theater , the first theater built in Europe from scratch during the modern era.
Only here you will be able to know the Galleria degli Antichi, the third gallery in Italy by length, the only golden fleece exposed to the public in Italy , and one of the most valuable works of the Italian Renaissance by the sculptor Leoni.