Pieve di Cadore is a welcoming little town, resting at the foot of the Dolomiti mountains, just a few kilometers away from the famous ski resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo. The town's most illustrious citizen was Tiziano Vecellio, the great Italian painter better known, beyond Italy, quite simply as Titian, and after whom one of the town's principal piazzas has been named. Just steps away from the house in which Titian was born (now a National Monument), we find the family chapel for which he painted his Pala di San Tiziano altarpiece. Titian memorabilia aside, Pieve di Cadore is also home to one of the most important of Veneto's archaeological museums, and to the Eye Glass Museum, this latter containing a collection of over 2000 spectacles originating from every corner of the globe, including a number dating all the way back to the middle ages.
From Pieve di Cadore we travel southwards towards Belluno, journeying through a typically pre-alpine landscape, in which to find the elegant Villa Dino Buzzati, where the highly acclaimed author of the Desert of the Tartars was born. Some thirty kilometers beyond Lentiai, lies Feltre, an important fortified city with numerous elegant edifices, many of which date back to the time of its dominion by the Serenissima Republic of Venice. One of the city's most important tourist attractions is its Piazza Maggiore, to which Feltre's Alboino Castle provides a magnificent backdrop.
Traveling on for another thirty kilometers or so, we come to Possagno, birthplace of the 18th century sculptor Antonio Canova, in whose honor any number of Museums and statues have been erected. The house where the artist was born, now transformed in Museum, offers a fascinating insight in to the every day life of the man considered the maximum exponent of Neoclassicism. Other places of certain interest include the Temple constructed by the artist, and the Plaster cast Museum in which the original plaster casts and sketches of all Canova's greatest works are conserved.
From Possagno, we head to the beautiful little town of Asolo, much loved by the actress Eleonora Duse who chose to retire here. From the central Piazza Maggiore, we soon reach Asolo's medieval Cathedral and the town's wonderfully romantic, arcaded streets, brimming with fashionable bars, restaurants and shops. The lush green surroundings of Asolo are also worthy of visit, if only so as to admire the elegant patrician residences which were built here in centuries past, residences such as the 17th century Villa Cipriani, one-time home of Elisabeth and Robert Browning.
Castelfranco Veneto is famous for its imposing castle, the massif walls of which enclose great part of the historic center. This is the town where Giorgione was born, famous for the way in which he revolutionized renaissance painting. One of his most important works, the Pala di Castelfranco, depicting the Madonna and Child Enthroned between St Francis and St Liberalis, is conserved in the town's Cathedral. Beyond the castle perimeter walls, on Via Riccato, we find the 18th century Church of S.Giacomo and just a little further on, the Guglie Bridge.
