Vicenza Geography

Vicenza lies in the central Veneto, roughly midway between Verona and Venice on the plain, at the confluence of the Bacchiglione and Retrone rivers. The historic centre occupies the wedge between them, which is why it is compact and why its edges are so clearly drawn.

The Colli Berici begin abruptly at the southern edge of the city -- limestone hills, wooded, rising a few hundred metres straight off the plain. Monte Berico, the nearest of them, carries the pilgrimage sanctuary and looks directly back over the rooftops.

North, the ground rises again toward the Altopiano di Asiago and the Little Dolomites, an hour away and a different climate entirely. The mountains matter to Vicenza historically as well as scenically: the province's wealth came partly from wool and quarried stone brought down from them.

The plain around the city is intensively farmed and studded with Palladian and post-Palladian villas -- the countryside was not a retreat from Vicenza's economy but the source of it.