Monselice Geography

Monselice stands against an isolated volcanic cone at the south-eastern edge of the Euganean Hills, where the last of the cones meets the flat plain. That position is the whole reason for the town: the hill commands the road south from Padua toward Ferrara and the Po, and whoever held it controlled the route.

The rock is trachyte, quarried here for centuries and used for paving across the Veneto — including, historically, in Venice. The quarry faces on the flanks are the visible cost of that. From the summit the view runs over the Euganean cones to the north and the entirely flat Bassa Padovana to the south.