Asiago Geography & Climate

The Altopiano di Asiago, or Altopiano dei Sette Comuni, is a broad limestone plateau in the southern pre-Alps, bounded by the Astico valley to the west, the Brenta to the east, and the Val d'Assa cutting through it.

The plateau surface sits mostly between 1,000 and 1,400 metres, an unusually flat and open upland, with the town of Asiago in a shallow basin at its centre. It rises northward to a rim of peaks -- Monte Ortigara, Cima Dodici and Monte Portule -- above 2,000 metres, which mark the boundary with Trentino.

The rock is karstic limestone: water disappears underground rather than running off, so the plateau has almost no surface streams but extensive cave systems, sinkholes and dry valleys. This is why the historic settlements depended on cisterns.

The vegetation is spruce forest on the slopes and open meadow and pasture across the plateau floor -- a landscape maintained by centuries of grazing and mowing, and the basis of the cheese.

To the south the plateau breaks off abruptly, dropping some 800 metres to the Venetian plain in a single escarpment.

Winters (December-March) are cold, with regular hard frost and reliable snow cover on the plateau, which is what supports the cross-country skiing. The karst basin around the town is known for temperature inversions and can be strikingly cold on still nights.

Summers (June-August) are cool and pleasant, typically in the low twenties, with afternoon thunderstorms building over the plateau. The contrast with the plain 800 metres below is dramatic, and is why Vicenza and Padua have holidayed here for a century.

Spring is late -- meadows come out in late May and June -- and autumn is clear and cold, with the first snow often in November.

Rainfall is high by Veneto standards and concentrated in spring and autumn; the plateau's exposure to Adriatic moisture from the south is what makes it one of the wetter parts of the pre-Alps.