Feltre discovery guide

Feltre is the most complete small Renaissance townscape in the Veneto mountains, and almost nobody goes. The upper town was rebuilt in one push after 1510 and never significantly altered, so Via Mezzaterra and Piazza Maggiore read as a single sixteenth-century composition rather than a collage of centuries.

The frescoed facades are the distinction. Painting the outside of houses was normal across the Veneto and has survived almost nowhere; here whole fronts remain legible, which is why the town is called città dipinta.

It is also the gateway to the western Dolomiti Bellunesi -- the national park has its headquarters here -- and the Vette Feltrine above are among the wildest and least walked mountains in the range.

And it produced Vittorino da Feltre, who in 1423 opened a school at Mantua built on the idea that children learn better when they are not beaten. It is a reasonable claim to being the first modern school in Europe.

May to September is the best stretch: mild in the valley, and the Vette Feltrine accessible from roughly late June once the snow has gone.

Late September and October are quieter still, with clear air and colour on the slopes -- the best time for the frescoes, which need bright light.

Early August brings the Palio di Feltre, when the town fills for the only time in its year.

Winter is cold and very quiet. The upper town is atmospheric under snow and almost empty, but the high paths are closed and several restaurants shut.

If you travel slowly: two nights lets you give a day to the town and a day to the park or the surrounding valleys, and Feltre is cheap enough that this costs little.

If you want the essentials: the climb up to the upper town, Via Mezzaterra end to end, Piazza Maggiore with the Lombardo fountain, and the castle ruins above for the view over the Valbelluna. Half a day.

If you're after local character: the Birreria Pedavena, a brewery founded in 1897 just outside town, is a genuine institution rather than a themed one -- a large beer hall where the valley eats.

If you want to go past the obvious: the Teatro de la Sena of 1802, built on the model of La Fenice and one of the most complete small Italian theatres of its period, opens for performances and occasional visits.

Feltre gets very few visitors, and that is its condition rather than a complaint -- the shops and restaurants of the upper town run on local trade, and a night spent here rather than in Belluno or Bassano makes a measurable difference to a small place.

The frescoes are the fragile asset. They are exterior paint on plaster, five centuries old, exposed to weather and traffic pollution, and they are slowly going. Nothing a visitor does affects them, but they are worth looking at properly while they are legible.

The Vette Feltrine are genuinely remote. The national park here has few refuges, unsurfaced paths and no cable cars -- which is the appeal, and also the reason to treat a walk as a mountain undertaking rather than a stroll.

Depopulation is the valley's long story. Villages up the side valleys have been emptying for a century, and the small sagre and family businesses there are where a visitor's money does the most good.

What a visitor actually spends in Feltre

Feltre is among the cheapest towns in this rollout, and dramatically cheaper than anywhere in the Dolomites proper an hour north.