What is Bassano del Grappa known for?

Palladio's 1569 covered wooden bridge across the Brenta, adopted as the symbol of the Alpini in 1918 and rebuilt seven times. The oldest grappa distillery in Italy, founded on the bridge in 1779, still distilling and pouring at the same address. Bassano-Nove production tradition from the sixteenth century, documented at Palazzo Sturm and still made by Veneto studios.

Where is Bassano del Grappa?

Bassano del Grappa is a comune in the province of Vicenza, Veneto region of Italy, about 35 kilometers from Vicenza.

Veneto · Vicenza

Bassano del Grappa

The Brenta River townwhere Palladio drew the covered bridge in 1569 and Nardini has been distilling grappa since 1779.

35 km / 22 mi

Nearest hub (Vicenza)

42,395

Population

Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Bassano sitson the Brenta, where the river breaks out of the Alpine foothills onto the Veneto plain forty-five kilometers north of Padova. A Roman estate gave the town its name in the second century BC; a pre-Roman bronze sword found here in 2009 dates to the seventh century BC. The medieval city is first mentioned in 998. Andrea Palladio designed the covered wooden bridge across the Brenta in 1569, replacing an older bridge documented since 1209. Floods and wars destroyed it repeatedly; the current version, inaugurated 3 October 1948 with Alcide De Gasperi present, was the seventh build. The Alpini, the Italian mountain troops, adopted the bridge as their symbol in the First World War. Nardini opened its distillery on the bridge in 1779, the oldest grappa house in Italy; Poli is its main local competitor. The city also kept the ceramics trade that flourished here from the sixteenth century, sharing the tradition with neighboring Nove. Piazza della Libertà, with its fifteenth-century loggia and clock, holds the historic center together.

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Gallery

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Known for

Ponte degli Alpini
Covered wooden bridge designed by Andrea Palladio in 1569, rebuilt seven times after floods and wars, current version inaugurated 1948.
Piazza della Libertà
Main square of the centro storico, overlooked by the Palazzo Municipale with its fifteenth-century loggia and clock tower.
Grapperia Nardini
Founded 1779, the oldest grappa distillery in Italy; the tasting room on the Ponte degli Alpini still operates daily.
Museo Civico
Civic museum on Piazza Garibaldi with works by Jacopo Bassano and the painter dynasty that took the city's name as their own.
Museo della Ceramica
Ceramics museum at Palazzo Sturm, documenting the Bassano-Nove tradition from the sixteenth century to contemporary studios.
Duomo di Santa Maria in Colle
Cathedral on the hill above the bridge, with a Romanesque core, Renaissance restructuring and a campanile of the eleventh century.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June and September through October are the working months. The Brenta runs cold and clear in spring, the centro storico fills slowly on weekends, and Piazza della Libertà holds the late-afternoon aperitivo crowd without spilling over. July and August push past thirty-two degrees in the valley; Bassano is a transit town for the Asiago plateau then, used for breakfast on the way up. November through March is quiet and grey; lowland fog can sit on the river for weeks. The bridge in winter mist, with the Alpini chapel lit from inside, is the photograph postcards still sell. The Grappa Festival runs the last weekend of September, the Asparagi di Bassano DOP comes into season in April.