6 days in Italy: exploring Veneto and Verona with some culinary experiences

• Day 1: Triëste
• Day 2: Venice
• Day 3: Burano (Venice) and driving north to Valdobbiadene in the prosecco region
• Day 4: Exploring Valdobiaddene and the prosecco region in Veneto with different prosecco tastings and cheese tasting
• Day 5: Soave wine region and Verona in the evening
• Day 6: Borghetto + Riva del Garda + Lago di Nembia
• Day 7: Back to Belgium

Do you want to visit Italy and have a combination of both famous locations as well as some gems? Then this blog article might be interesting for you! As you see in the itinerary we have visited some of Italy’s most famous places (Venice, Verona, Garda) but also some lesser known areas which are very unique (Triëste, Prosecco region, Soave wine region). Get ready to plan your Northern Italy trip already and have some great culinary experiences!

Some info before we dive into it: In June of 2021 we traveled to Europe’s hidden gem, Slovenia (read all about that here) and decided to add 6 days in Italy as they are neighboring countries. We ended our trip in Slovenia in Piran, which was only a 30 minutes drive from the border with Italy. In this blog post I will focus on the Veneto and Verona region in Italy for people who like to have a chilled out holiday. I will write another blog post about other areas in Italy in the future.

Day 1: Triëste

In the morning we drove from Piran to Triëste. We spent half a day here as a stop on our way to Venice but the city is big enough to spend 1 or 2 days in the area if you have more time.

We arrived around 11 AM and did a tour through the city with Joorinde Steinhorst. Joorinde is a guide and knows the city very well. She took us around Triëste for 2h30 and showed us all the best places while providing us with historical information about the city and the buildings. There’s so much history in the city which makes it very interesting because it feels like you’re going back in time.

After the tour we got lunch in the city and enjoyed a drink in the sun before driving on to our stay in Venice. From Triëste to Venice it’s only 2 hours by car. You can also easily visit Triëste by train as a day trip if you’re staying in Venice.

Day 2: Venice

We stayed in an Airbnb north of Venice because we did not trust leaving the car unattended because we had a lot of stuff in the car (we were on the road for almost 3 weeks and had a lot of camping gear we used in Slovenia) + we did not want to pay a parking garage for 2 days. When you’re staying outside of Venice it’s easy to take the metro into the city but I would recommend staying in the city itself if you can as that is way more charming.

We already visited Venice a few years back in 2019 and were loving it. You can get lost so easily in all the beautiful little streets, it’s amazing. We did not follow a map but just let the streets guide us and automatically you will pass by the most famous hotspots.

There are so many beautiful places to visit in Venice but if I have to choose one you must see, it would be Burano (see day 3 of this blog) and Murano. Near St. Mark’s Square there are a lot of ticket booths where you can buy a ticket for a tour to Burano and Murano. Murano is known for it’s glassblowing artists because in 1921 all glassblowers were ordered to move to Murano because the Venetian Republic feared for fires in the city as most of the buildings and bridges were made out of wood. In Murano you can witness the glass blowing process which is a real work of art. Burano on the other hand looks like a small version of Venice but even more colorful.

I would also recommend paying a visit in Libreria Acqua Alta. It’s a little book story but it’ll be like no other bookstore you’ve seen before! Coördinates: 45.437988718860424, 12.34228998641416

We wandered around all day exploring all the beautiful streets, enjoyed the views on the many canals, got some delicious ice cream and enjoyed the Italian cuisine before returning to our B&B. We went there during covid times and it was really weird to see how empty Venice was. Ofcourse there were other tourists but St. Mark’s Square was not crowded at all while during our previous stay in 2019 it was packed with people.

Note: I could describe all the famous hotspots in Venice in here but like I said, the best thing to do is just wander around and you’ll end up at the most famous locations on yourself.

Day 3: Burano (Venice) and driving north to Valdobbiadene in the prosecco region

In the morning we went back to Venice to explore Burano, before leaving and driving north to the prosecco region. We had great memories of Burano back from our first trip and wanted to see it again. Burano is a smaller island filled with colorful houses. It’s a smaller and more colorful version of Venice itself.

Burano isn’t big so it won’t take you more than 1 hour 30 to 2 hours to stroll around. After wandering there, we left Venice behind us and continued our trip to a region we were really looking forward to: the prosecco region of Italy! Last note about Venice: 2 days should be enough to explore it.

We drove from Venice to Valdobbiadene, a township north from Venice (only a 1 hour drive). The prosecco hills there are on the Unesco World Heritage list since 2019. We stayed at Hotel Municipio, which was a cosy B&B surrounded by vinyards. We arrived in the afternoon and drove around in the car to enjoy the scenery. You can drive around the Strade del Prosecco which is what we did to get a nice view of the area and basically you’ll pass by most of the best views of the prosecco region. Everywhere you’ll find yourself surrounded by vineyards.

Day 4: Exploring Valdobiaddene and the prosecco region in Veneto with different prosecco tastings and cheese tasting

Our day started with exploring the town of Valdobbiadene. Valdobbiadene is not big and besides the town square, there’s not that much to do or see in the town itself. It’s nice but doesn’t offer many activities. We drove around the Cartizze area and went to a local shop owned by a few brothers who make their own cheese, bread, meat,… The shop is called Storica Latteria di Miane and their cheese was delicious. I’m not a cheese lover but enjoyed every bit of what they had to offer. We tasted a bit of different cheeses (with a glass of prosecco ofcourse). Afterwards we could watch the cheese making process.

After this, we went to our first wine house for a prosecco tasting. We started off with Col Vetoraz in Valdobiaddene, one of the more famous wine houses in the area. They tell you all about their wines, the process of the grapes and how the prosecco is made. Col Vetoraz itself is located on top of a hill and gives you far stretched views over the surrounding prosecco hills. It’s not like we are experts in prosecco but their products were delicious! We bought a few bottles after the tasting and went on to the next one.

After the tasting we had lunch somewhere we drove by and afterwards we did some more exploring of the area and went to Molinetta Della Croda. We arrived here and were all alone, which amazed us as this is such a gorgeous gem and no one was there. You can enjoy the view and explore the little museum inside, which tells the history of the mill. It’s not that big so it will only take you 30 minutes. I highly suggest you to visit this as it’s really beautiful and not a known touristic spot. We felt like we were in a fairytale place or a famous Instagram spot that no one discovered yet.

Afterwards we did our second tasting of the day at Cantina Gregoletto in Miane. This was a smaller wine house which also produced great prosecco’s. Both houses let us taste 5 or 6 different wines.

After our second tasting we drove on to the Soave wine region as we would be having another day of wine tastings here the next day. The Soave wine region is located east of Verona and was only a 1 hour 30 minutes drive from Valdobbiadene.

Day 5: Soave wine region and Verona in the evening

We stayed the night in Cantina Tessari, a lovely B&B owned by some wine house owners. When we arrived in the evening we relaxed in the hot tub before going to bed.

On day 5 we started off with a lovely breakfast at the B&B and a wine tasting at the Tessari wine house, next to the B&B. A perfect way to start the day, right?!

After the wine tasting we went to explore the area a little bit since we only arrived late in the evening the day before. After driving around in the area and enjoying the views on the vineyards, we went to the second tasting of the day at Ca’Rugate in Montecchia di Crosara. The tasting was great here with a lot of information and afterwards they showed us around in their ‘museum’ in the winery. Which was nice to see the history of the wine making process.

After the tasting we did some more driving around to enjoy the area and had lunch at a small restaurant on the road to our next stop.

In the afternoon we had planned 1 last tasting at Cantina di Soave. Cantina di Soave is one of the bigger wine houses and in our experience one of the best we went to (together with Col Vetoraz which we visited the previous day in the prosecco region). The main difference is that in the Soave region there’s more focus on red and white wines, while the prosecco region is mainly producing prosecco.

After the tasting we were shown around the hillside behind the wine house where they host events and where you have a great view over the surrounding town and the castle next to it.

We did 5 wine houses in 5 days and they all were a great experience. Every wine house is different and the taste of the wines varies a lot depening on the process, the kind of grape etc. If you have the time, you’ll enjoy doing a few of these houses to get to know the different tastes. We experienced that every wine house is very proud of their product and their region and they all speak with passion about their wines, it was nice to experience that.

By the time we finished the last tasting it was 4 PM and we drove on to our next stop: Verona. We arrived in our B&B 40 minutes later, checked in, left our bags and went to explore the city. We did not have many expectations for Verona but I must say I’m impressed. It’s a lovely city with lots of beautiful streets and buildings. Almost all the buildings have beautiful facades and cute balconies.

Verona is the city famous for Romeo & Juliet and there are a lot of things to do and see here. We got a city map at the B&B and asked our host which spots she recommended. Most of them were already indicated on the map so we strolled around the city enjoying to see the beautiful architecture. We did not go to see the famous Juliet’s balcony because we don’t like tourist traps but if you want you can easily visit it as it is in the middle of the city. Just like other cities in Italy, Verona has a very rich history and a whole lot of beautiful old buildings.

We spent about 5 hours in the city walking around and enjoying all the different streets, grabbing something to eat and to drink before we returned to our Airbnb. As it was late afternoon/evening when we arrived in the city, we did not visit any museums. We enjoyed our short stay in Verona but if you really want to enjoy all of it, I suggest you have at least 1 full day there.

Day 6: Borghetto + Riva del Garda + Lago di Nembia

On day 6 we had some stops planned when driving from Verona to the north of Italy (border with Austria because we had to go back to Belgium the next day). We started off with Borghetto, a very small, cute and lovely medieval town not too far from Verona (35 minutes by car). Look how stunning this place is, it’s like a movie scene! We strolled around a bit but it’s really small.

After visiting Borghetto, we drove north with a stop at noon at Riva Del Garda. We visited the Garda Lake the year before so this year we didn’t have a lot of time planned here. It was our last day so we just stopped to enjoy the sun by the lake and to grab some lunch. You can easily spend a lot of time around the Garda lake and I’ll make another blog post of our roadtrip around Italy where I’ll put in more details. After having lunch and enjoying the lake views, we hit the road again to our last scenic stop: Lago di Nembia.

I don’t have photos of Lake Garda or lago di Nembia as my second camera sd card lost all data. I lost almost all my photos of the last day + my video content of our trip (guess I’ll have to go back). Lago di Nembia is a small mountain lake with some wooden walkways over it. Very lovely scenery to enjoy the sun and to go swimming in the lake. We spent 1h30 here and then drove further north to our stay at the border with Austria.

Day 7: Back to Belgium

I will make another blogpost later about other regions in Italy where we traveled to as well during another roadtrip (Dolomites, Cinque Terre, Lake Garda, Tuscany) so make sure to subscribe to the blog to get updated whenever I publish a new article!

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