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ASTRONOMY TRAIL IN VICENZA
Ride on horseback from Pluto to the Sun
Walk, cycle or ride through an 8 km scale model of the Solar o 1 billion
Vicenza’s Sentiero dei Pianeti, literally the Planet Trail, is an 8 kilometre walking and cycling route built as a scale model of the Solar System. The planets are positioned along the route at a scale of 1 to 1 billion, so every metre you travel represents one million kilometres in space. The trail starts in Asiago, passes the Leiten Memorial and the hamlets of Zocchi and Pennar, and finishes at the Astrophysical Observatory. You can follow it on foot, by mountain bike or on horseback.
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Know before you go
The Sentiero dei Pianeti is an outdoor route and can be followed independently. Visits and activities inside the Asiago Astrophysical Observatory are separate and require booking. Route name Da Asiago alle stelle · Sentiero dei Pianeti Observatory visits Separate booking required Tourist information SIT Asiago Phone +39 0424 462221 Email info@asiago.to The official Asiago tourism site gives the route as easy, 8 km, about two hours and 150 m of ascent, while INAF confirms that public observatory activities require booking.
About
The Sentiero dei Pianeti makes the Solar System physically understandable.
Along the route, the distances between the planets are reproduced at a scale of 1 to 1 billion. Every metre under your feet equals one million kilometres in space, and the planets themselves are shown at the same scale. Information panels explain each stop as the route moves out of Asiago and towards the observatory.
Start with Pluto and walk towards the Sun. Across eight kilometres of meadows, country lanes and little mountain contrade, the Solar System has been rebuilt at a scale of 1 to 1 billion. Every metre beneath your feet represents one million kilometres in space. Pluto waits near the Sacrario del Leiten. Earth is barely 1.3 centimetres wide. Jupiter reaches about 14 centimetres. The Sun, almost 1.4 metres across, waits at the Asiago Astrophysical Observatory. By the time you reach it, space has stopped being an abstract number.
It is also one of the easiest ways to combine astronomy with a proper outdoor day on the Plateau: the official route is about 8 km, takes around two hours, gains roughly 150 metres and is classified as easy. It can be done on foot, by mountain bike or on horseback.
FROM ASIAGO TO THE OBSERVATORY
The route starts at the Ice Stadium in Asiago and reaches the square in front of the Sacrario Militare del Leiten. From there it continues along a gravel road towards Contrada Zocchi and then Contrada Pennar before climbing to the Asiago Astrophysical Observatory. Asiago
This is what makes the walk useful as a destination route rather than just an educational installation: you move from town into the open landscape of the Plateau and finish at one of Italy’s historic centres of astronomical research.
PLUTO, SATURN, ASIAGO CHEESE, THE SUN
The route crosses Contrada Zocchi and Pennar before reaching the Observatory. Along the way, one exceptionally useful planetary stop appears at Caseificio Pennar. So the afternoon can quite reasonably include Pluto, Saturn, Asiago cheese, Mars and the Sun. Few Solar Systems are this well catered.
FINISH BENEATH A GREAT TELESCOPE
The trail reaches the Asiago Astrophysical Observatory, home of the Galileo telescope. When Galileo opened in 1942, it was the most powerful and modern telescope in Europe. Walk through a miniature Solar System, then finish beneath a dome built to study the real one.