Bassano del Grappa

The ancient name was Fundus Baxiani, the farm of a certain Bassius; the «del Grappa» came much later, from the mountain above it — before that it was Bassano Veneto. From 1404, and for almost four centuries, it was the seat of a Venetian territory answering to no other city: the documents call it a land exempt and separate from any jurisdiction whatsoever. It stands where the Brenta comes out of its gorge, a point that gives you at once the countryside, the river and the roads.

The Ponte Vecchio is made of wood by Palladio's design, who drew it in 1569 flexible enough to withstand the Brenta: destroyed and rebuilt more than once — the last time by the Alpini, who have made it their emblem and elected the town their capital — it remains one of the best-loved bridges in Italy. At its two ends stand the historic distilleries: the Nardini family has been making grappa here since 1779. The town is a Venetian drawing room of frescoed squares, with a civic museum rich in Jacopo Da Ponte and the memory of the Remondini printers. The comune climbs from the eighty-four metres of the Brenta to the fourteen hundred of the Grappa, the memorial of the Great War that watches from above: history and sips hold together.