Sile Style (Treviso)

Member Name: vhart

Product:	Treviso
Date:	18/06/02 (210 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: pretty

Disadvantages: too many expensive shops!

Treviso lies about 20 kilometres north of her rather more illustrious neighbour, Venice.. and in an attempt to almost pour the scorn mainland Venetans often feel for the Most Serene Republic, the tourist office of Treviso market the town as the 'city of water'.

And if you want water, so you find it. The Sile wends her ways in a most picturesque manner around the walls of the old city.

I've been living in Treviso for about 8 months now, and it is hard to feel an initial fondness but she can grow on you and there are certainly worse places to spend an afternoon or two (Mestre springs to mind as as immediate example of 'somewhere worse'!).


But back to Treviso.. she is one of the richest towns in Italy and on some occasions it is almost possible to smell the money. Benetton and Stefanel are some of her more famous sons and the large Benetton in the centre of the town is one of the highlights of any tour because it's such a pretty building.. and it has nice toilets (very important for a town with no public facilities!).

It is a walled town and within the walls you find almost every area of interest. There is a small museum of local interest, but there is a particularly impressive art gallery which had a highly successful Monet exhibition last year and plans more of the same. If you have the money here, you can buy in culture!

There is a cathedral which looms across the western parts of the town, but the city's heart is Piazza della Signora which is beautiful by any standards with a few pleasant cafes for lounging around in and enjoying people-watching!

Radicchio trevigiano is the speciality here, w hich is kind of a bitter tasting red chicory, only grown in the 'March' of Treviso (as the surrounding countryside is known). It doesn't taste as bad as it sounds, although they put it in just about everything here, if you arrive in the right season, and you can't reall
y escape it!

There is a big market every saturday morning and the transport connections are pretty good, it's about 20 mins from Mestre by train, an hour and a bit from Trieste and 4 hours from Milan.

As for the people, they work hard and they spend their money. They dress extremely well, and I felt far more conscious of fashion here than in Milan!

A couple of good restaurants if you make it here, my favourite pizzeria da Pasqualino is on the main Via del Popolo, on a small street opposite MacDonalds.. and Tony del Spin is more of a trattoria, serving good food at a good price and it is behind the Piazza della Signoria.

Some nice bars, if you can find them, scatter through the centre of Treviso, and are worth seeking. There are a few pubs but they aren't as authentic.. still, if you wanted authetic pubs you'd stay in England!

Summary: