PROSECCO COUNTRY Arte e vino between Marca Gioiosa and the Dolomites

Morning flight from London Heathrow to Venice. En route to our hotel in the historic hill town of Conegliano, stop at Treviso, main city of the region known as the Marca Gioiosa – the fertile ‘joyous and amorous’ plain that was one of Venice’s oldest possessions on the Italian mainland. The gigantic brick basilica of San Nicolò is embellished with 14th- and 15th-century frescoes, while the Duomo’s Malchiostro Chapel contains works by Titian and Pordenone. From there return to Conegliano for dinner in a local restaurant.

Morning in Conegliano: in the Duomo we will study the Sacra Conversazione by Giambattista Cima da Conegliano, the town’s most famous native and Giovanni Bellini’s best follower. We will also visit Cima’s family home, a ‘casa di memoria’ which often mounts small exhibitions or reproductions of the painter’s best-known works. In the afternoon a short coach journey will take us to Serravalle, whose handsome historic centre features painted facades, a small museum, a beautifully frescoed oratory, and a huge altarpiece of the Madonna and Child in Glory with Saints Andrew and Peter by Titian. On the way back to Conegliano we’ll visit a famous winery for a Prosecco wine-tasting.

Full-day coach excursion to Possagno, home of 19th-century superstar Antonio Canova, preferred sculptor of celebrities in the age of Napoleon. A stunning collection of his plaster casts is assembled behind a beautifully curated museum documenting his career. Lunch at Asolo, ‘the city of a hundred horizons’ (Giosuè Carducci), beautifully set on the first of a chain of rolling hills between the Venetian plain and the Alps. In the afternoon visit Palladio’s Villa Barbaro, whose interiors are entirely frescoed with ideal landscapes and Olympian deities by Paolo Veronese.

Follow the course of the mighty Piave, past some little-known churches housing precious paintings by Titian’s family members, towards Feltre. This small town was razed to the ground by German Imperial troops in 1510, but immediately rebuilt as a Renaissance ideal city by the Venetians. Stately buildings with faded frescoes lead up to the stage-like Piazza Maggiore, flanked by the Palazzo della Ragione. Its council hall was re-designed in the 19th century as a handsome theatre. The Galleria d’Arte Moderna displays a superb collection of Art Nouveau and Art Deco forged iron objects by Feltrino artist Carlo Rizzarda. Lunch in a restaurant in the vine-covered hills of the Valdobbiadene.

By coach to Belluno, perched high above the River Piave. Sebastiano Ricci, the great instigator of 18th-century Venetian painting, hailed from here, and the Duomo and local museum contain stunning examples of his glittering and sketchy brushwork. In the afternoon continue to Pieve di Cadore, birthplace of Titian. His family’s simple home contains memorabilia, while at the town hall we can admire the impressive parchment certificate in which Emperor Charles V conferred a knighthood to his favourite painter.

Depart for Ceneda where we will visit Andrea Previtali’s Annunciation altarpiece of S. Maria del Meschio, depicting a view of an idyllic gently rolling and verdant landscape. Continue to Venice airport for an early afternoon flight to London Heathrow.