Castles, Palladian Villas, gentle hills: the Lessini Durello Wine Road offers some very emotional moments, and not only for gourmets. Over recent years the Lessini hills with their volcanic soils, have been addressed to cultivating the typical Durello variety of vine, with a special acidity level which makes excellent spumante.

There is a wide choice of itineraries. In the Vicenza province the most important is from Montecchio Maggiore with Villa Cordellina Lombardi, a Palladian villa with some precious frescoes by Giovan Battista Tiepoli inside. On the nearby hills the so-called castles of Romeo and Juliet stand, which give a wonderful view from the Lessini through to the Berici Hills. Nearby is Arzignano with the impressive Castle, walls and towers cut out of the basalt rock, which then leads us to Valdagno, Recoaro Terme and Schio, which is a famous wool weaving centre and seat of an Industrial Archaeology Museum.

When we go to the Verona province, the small wine town of Roncà is well known for having been the land of the Cimbrian shepherds from the northern Bavarian area who colonised the Lessini hills. There are important traces of them, beginning with the layout of the districts, the dialect and the production of the noble Monte Veronese cheese. The Fossil Museum must be visited, with the remains from the Middle Eocene period.