The Rough Guide to Venice and the Veneto

Cima exemplifies the conservative strand in Venetian painting of the early
sixteenth century, but at their best his paintings have something of the elegiac
tone of Giovanni Bellini’s later works. The museum’s pictures present clearly
his strengths and his weaknesses; not one of them, though, is a painting by
Cima – they’re all high-class reproductions.
The Palazzo Sarcinelli, at Via XX Settembre 130–134, sometimes stages
good art exhibitions, but the only permanent display is that in the Museo
Civico, which is housed in the tallest surviving tower of the reconstructed
tenth-century castello on top of the hill. It’s reached most quickly by the
steep and cobbled Calle Madonna della Neve, which begins at the end of
Via Accademia, the street beside the palatial Accademia cinema, and follows
the town’s most impressive stretch of ancient wall. (The Scaligeri raised the
wall in the 1330s, and half a century later the Carraresi made it higher.) The
museum (Tues–Sun: April–Oct 10am–12.30pm & 3.30–7pm; Dec–March
10am–12.30pm & 3–6.30pm; e2, or e3 joint ticket with the Sala dei Battuti)
has some damaged frescoes by Pordenone and a small bronze horse by
Giambologna, but most of the paintings are “Workshop of . . . ” or “School
of . . . ”, and the displays of coins, maps, archeological finds, armour and so
forth are no more fascinating than you’d expect. To pad things out there’s
a section devoted to famous people with local connections, complete with
terracotta busts of Arturo Toscanini, who got married in Conegliano, and
Mozart’s great librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, who was born in nearby Cèneda
(see p.380). But it’s a lovingly maintained museum, and the climb through
the floors culminates on the tower’s roof, from where you get a fine view
across the vine-clad landscape. (If you’d like to savour the panorama in more
comfort, you could sip a drink on the terrace of the neighbouring Al Castello
bar, which looks towards the Dolomites.) The castello shares the summit of
the hill with the heavily restored Santa Orsola, the minuscule remnant of
the ancient church of San Leonardo, which was Conegliano’s main church
from its foundation in the twelfth century until the demolition of everything
but the apse (where some scrappy frescoes survive) and a single chapel in the
middle of the eighteenth.
Practicalities
Conegliano’s tourist office, at Via XX Settembre 61, on the corner of Piazza
G.B. Cima (daily 9.30am–12.30pm, plus Thurs–Sat 3–6pm; t0438.21.230),
is well stocked with information. Via XX Settembre has plenty of cafés, bars
and food shops, and what is clearly the first-choice hotel, the three-star A
Canon d’Oro at no. 129 (t0438.34.246, wwww.hotelcanondoro.it; 2), which
is housed in one of the finer frescoed palaces in the street, has a terraced
garden to the rear, free parking, and Jacuzzis in the more expensive rooms.
For low-cost eating, you could try the cosy Al Bacareto, Via Cavour 6 (closed
Mon). Otherwise the fish menu at the excellent Trattoria Città di Venezia, Via
XX Settembre 77 (t0438.23.186; closed Sun eve & Mon), will take you into
the region of e45; the cheaper Osteria La Bea Venezia, next door, has similarly
high standards.
Prosecco is the chief wine of the Conegliano district, and its producers
compile a list of recommended outlets; the tourist office should have the latest
list, plus details of the wine routes. If you want to sample the stuff at source,
exploration of the Strada del Prosecco by public transport isn’t a problem –
buses run frequently until around 7.30pm from Conegliano to Valdobbiádene
(1hr), leaving from Piazzale Santa Caterina (follow Via Colombo).
the northern veneto
| Conegliano
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