FROM AWARD-WINNING CITY PARKS TO THE MOUNTAINS

Outdoor activities in Vicenza: parks, cycling, caves, lakes and mountain escapes

As told by

National Geographic· The Guardian· WWF· Landscape Architecture Magazine· Topos· Casabella· European Garden Award· European Prize for Urban Public Space·

The Guardian described Vicenza and its surroundings as an “antidote to overtourism”. For travellers looking for hidden gems in Europe, underrated places in Italy and off-the-beaten-path destinations, the surprise is how quickly the landscape changes here: urban parks and wetlands give way to cycling routes, caves, fossil reefs, lakes and mountain trails.

URBAN TRAILS & HISTORIC PATHS

You don’t even have to leave Vicenza to start escaping it.

BOTANICAL GREENHOUSES IN VICENZA GOLD MEDAL · DOMUS Walk through the city park to the restored greenhouses that won the Domus Gold Medal WALK THE PARK + AWARD-WINNING URBAN PARK EUROPEAN AWARD Why a former airport keeps winning top international landscape awards EXPLORE THE PARK +

HISTORIC GARDENS IN VICENZA 300 YEARS Walk from Tiepolo frescoes into a historic forest reopened after three centuries EXPLORE THE GARDENS +

WWF WETLAND 24 HA A former clay quarry became a 24 hectare WWF wetland EXPLORE THE WETLAND + URBAN KAYAK Paddle through the surviving water gate of the historic city EXPLORE BY KAYAK +

RECORDS FROM THE VICENZA MOUNTAINS

Italy’s largest optical telescope is in Vicenza

A 1.82 metre mirror on Cima Ekar is one of several scientific and natural records hidden across the Vicenza mountains and countryside.

BERICI HILLS

FROM CLIMATE ARCHIVE TO THE FOSSIL SEA

CAVE BOAT IN VICENZA 12°C ALL YEAR Take a boat into the mountain to a 14 metre wall of white stalactites GO UNDERGROUND +

Fossils and geological history in Vicenza

A PLACE THAT NAMED A GEOLOGICAL AGE PRIABONIAN Visit the village whose name geologists use for an entire age of the Earth SEE THE PRIABONIAN + ALPINE BOTANICAL GARDEN 500+ SPECIES Walk through more than 500 mountain species at 1,350 metres EXPLORE THE GARDEN + HISTORIC WATER-POWERED TRAIL WATERMILLS Walk a valley built around watermills, a blacksmith’s hammer and a community bread oven WALK THE MILL VALLEY +

WILD SWIMMING RIVER GORGE Swim through a natural river gorge carved into the rock SWIM THE GORGE +

Know a trail, garden or wild place we should see?

KEEP EXPLORING

From the city edge to the night sky

Cycle the old railway route once known as the Black Cow Stargazing in Vicenza Vicenza’s Slow Food record

THE NEXT DROP

Ancient grains, kitchen garden and mill room on an organic farm inside the city

THE NEXT DROP · VIA VICENZA NEWSLETTER

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