September Veneto Road Trip

Veneto is a beautiful region to explore filled with charming towns filled with amazing food and sites to see. 

The highlight of our end of summer was a trip to Italy where we drove around Veneto for ten days. Typically, we fly to Rome and drive from there but this time we flew to Venice and explored new areas nearby. We have explored Veneto before so we skipped exploring places like Verona and Soave that we are already familiar with. I’m often asked about our travel routes that are commonly curated with the help of Pinterest and a lot exploration on google maps (mainly by looking at the restaurants in the area), so I wanted to share this route with you, in case you are in the midst of planning a road trip to Veneto. The great thing about this location is that all the cities/towns we stayed in are about an hour away from each other which makes it very convenient when travelling with an active almost two year old toddler. So, our travel route was Venice – Arquá Petrarca- Treviso- Chioggia. From these towns, we made day trips to other locations that I will share with you later.

Venice

Well, Venice needs no introduction. We only stayed in Venice for one day as we have been there before so our priority was to visit other places instead and thought it would be too full of tourists. Surprisingly there were not that many tourists in Venice if you wonder off the beaten path which makes the experience that much more lovely. We enjoyed it that much more, so we decided to visit it again from Arquá Petrarca. Venice is quite difficult with a travel stroller but luckily my husband is strong and carried it over the bridges when we walked around, so keep this in mind if travelling with a small child. Venice is beautiful, get there early and enjoy it when it is still calm on the streets.

Arquá Petrarca

Arquá Petrarca, this medieval village  invites you to take a slow walk in the foot steps of Mount Piccolo and Mount Ventolone. Peaked on top to a hill, the surrounding is covered with woodland and vineyards, while the cobbled street tiny town is filled with many restaurants inviting you to the slow pace of life in the most charming setting. The town has been inhabited since Roman times but it grew during the Middle Ages during the domination of Venice. The little town gained attention when Francesco Petrarca, an illustrious Italian poet spent the his last years here and notably the town is part of Italy’s most beautiful Villages. Places to visit near by are Padova, Vicenza, Venice and Rovigo.

While the town has been inhabited since Roman times, it grew significantly in the Middle Ages under the Padovan nobles and the domination of Venice. It gained more attention when Francesco Petrarca, an illustrious Italian poet and scholar, decided to spend the last years of his life in the serene tranquility of this place.

Treviso

Just 26km from Venice, Treviso is a chic less- touristy town in the Veneto region of north-east Italy that makes a great base for exploring. Treviso is an underrated gem often overshadowed by the iconic status of its neighbour. The town fills with little waterways calling itself città d’acque making it an important feature of the townscape. The river Side runs to the south of the center that lines with beautiful houses, hortensia bushes and water wheels. The tranquil atmosphere is much different from its neighbouring Venice and it does not depend on tourism, there are no tacky tourist shops and it is evident that this town has a sense of prosperity. We where lucky enough to stumble across a large antique market that travels in different towns in the region on Sundays. Also, a street market is held every Saturday morning, where they sell high-quality clothing and vintage gems. The market brought in collectors and serious buyers looking for cars, paintings, silver ware and furniture. We strolled through the market in the morning for a couple of hours and found antique brass handles, silver ware and onyx statues to take back home with us. We where also lucky that there was a circus in town as we always have wanted to take our little boy to an old fashioned circus that was a real treat for us. Apparently, every morning (except Monday) a seafood market is held on the Isola della Pescheria, a small island in the middle of the Cagnan river. Also Piazza Giustinian holds an organic farmers’ market three times a week, selling local wine, cheese and charcuterie.

Chioggia

It is a pretty little fishing town on a group of small islands connected by bridges in the southernmost outpost of the Venetian lagoon that is apart of the most beautiful cities in Italy. This town has a beautiful beach, pretty canals, amazing seafood and enchanting Italian charm. We stayed in the idyllic old town, that was lively, full of fishing boats and authenticity. You could hear the seagulls as the fishing boats came to dock, fishermen brought fresh produce to the fish market on a daily basis that collected a lot of buzz. The region is known for spider crab fishing along with catching little vongole- clams. We went to the beach a few times that is located only a 15 minute walk away from the old town that was a lovely experience for our little boy. Chioggia is very pretty and just off the beaten path enough to have retained a lot of local charm making it a great place to explore. We drove back to Venice airport from Chioggia that completed our lovely roadtrip.