The Venetian Land Empire - A spectrum of north-east Italy’s finest art and architecture

Fly at c. 9.00am (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Venice. Drive to the delightful little walled town of Castelfranco to see Giorgione’s Madonna Enthroned in the cathedral, one of the treasures of Renaissance Italy. Continue to the lovely hilltop town of Asolo where the first six nights are spent.

Once an important fortress city, Treviso retains imposing public buildings and many painted façades. The cathedral has a Titian Annunciation, but the most memorable paintings are the 1352 frescoes of learned friars by Tommaso da Modena at the Friary of St Nicholas. Return to Asolo via the Villa Barbaro at Maser, designed by Palladio for two highly cultivated Venetian brothers, with more superb frescoes, this time by Veronese.

Excursion to nearby Bassano del Grappa, a highly attractive hill town with a series of picturesque squares and painted façades and a wooden bridge designed by Palladio. Home of the Bassano family of painters, there is a major holding of their works in the civic museum. On the return journey, visit the Brion cemetery complex by Carlo Scarpa, which is 20th-century architecture at its most beautiful and moving.

The medieval town hall and surrounding squares are among the finest of such ensembles in Italy. Giotto’s fresco cycle in the Arena Chapel is one of the greatest achievements in the history of art. Further outstanding 14th-century fresco cycles are those by Giusto de’ Menabuoi in the Baptistry and by Altichieri in the vast domed Basilica of St Anthony.

Vicenza is architecturally the noblest and most homogenous city in northern Italy, much of the fabric consisting of 16th-century aristocratic residences. Andrea Palladio spent most of his life here; his buildings include the town hall (Basilica Palladiana), an epoch-making theatre (Teatro Olimpico) and several grand houses. The Palazzo Chiericati houses an art gallery.

Two major villas are located just outside Vicenza, ‘La Rotonda’, the most famous of all Palladian villas, and Villa Valmarana ‘ai Nani’, with superb frescoes by Giambattista Tiepolo and his son Giandomenico. Return to Asolo for some free time (The Lorenzo Lotto altarpiece in the cathedral is not to be missed.)

There are more Tiepolo frescoes in the Villa Cordellina in Montecchio Maggiore. Continue to Verona and visit first the 18th-century Giusti Gardens for wonderful views over the city. The remaining three nights are spent in Verona.

One of the most richly stocked and beautiful of the historic cities of Italy, Verona was a major Roman settlement, a powerful medieval nation-state and an important fortress through to Austrian rule in the 19th century. Walk through the sequence of interconnecting squares at the heart of the city, see selected artworks in the churches (Pisanello’s fresco in Sta. Anastasia) and visit the art museum in the supremely elegant red-brick castle, refurbished by Carlo Scarpa, as well as San Zeno, a splendid Romanesque church with an altarpiece by Mantegna.

A centre of Lombard power, Brescia was swallowed by the Venetians in 1426. The refurbished Santa Giulia City Museum shows remarkable artworks and artefacts from Roman onwards, and the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo has a very good picture collection. The Rotonda is a 12th-century round church, the Broletto one of the earliest surviving town halls and the Loggia a beautiful Renaissance building.

The ramparts around the Upper Town of Bergamo are immensely impressive, as befits the westernmost outpost of the Venetian empire. This is among the most attractive of old city centres in Italy, and the architectural complex of the Piazza del Duomo includes the Romanesque cathedral and the Renaissance Cappella Colleoni with frescoes by Tiepolo. See the outstanding collection of paintings in the Accademia Carrara on the way to the Lower Town. Fly from Milan Linate, returning to Heathrow at c. 8.15pm.