Conegliano Culture

Prosecco here is an everyday drink, not a celebration one. The local habit is a glass of dry Superiore with something small before dinner, and the spritz made with it is a working-week drink. Anyone arriving with the sweet supermarket version in mind will find the real thing drier, flintier and considerably better.

Cima da Conegliano is the town's other claim. His Madonna and Child with Saints of 1493 is still on the altar it was painted for in the Duomo, which is rare, and his birthplace on Via XX Settembre is now a small museum with reproductions of the works that left.

The Scuola Enologica shapes the place more than any monument does. It has been running since 1876, it has its own experimental vineyards and cellar, and its presence is why the surrounding countryside is full of technically excellent small producers rather than a handful of large ones.

Food is Trevigiano rather than distinctive: radicchio in winter, spiedo (mixed roast meats turned slowly on a spit) in the hills, and cheeses from the Cansiglio plateau above.