The Prosecco towns: which to visit, and why

Which are the Prosecco towns?

Prosecco is made across nine provinces of northeast Italy,¹ so in a sense every town from Vicenza to Trieste is a Prosecco town. The ones people mean are fewer: the hill towns between Valdobbiadene and Conegliano, where the steep vineyards are; Asolo to the west; the market towns along the wine road; and, far to the east, the village that gave the wine its name.

Every town here makes Prosecco. Only some of them make lunch worth the drive. Here’s the shortlist.

The hill towns

• ValdobbiadeneWhere the wine road ends,² with the hill of Cartizze on its slopes.³ Come for tastings, booked ahead.
• ConeglianoWhere the wine road starts,² with a castle on the hill⁴ and Italy’s first school of viticulture and winemaking, founded in 1876.⁵ The train from Venice stops here.⁶
• San Pietro di Barbozza and Santo StefanoVillages on the slopes outside Valdobbiadene, where the Cartizze vineyards lie.³ The walking loop through the hills starts at San Pietro di Barbozza.⁷
• AsoloA walled hill town to the west,⁸ with its own Prosecco DOCG.⁹ Robert Browning titled a book of poems Asolando, after asolare, a word said to mean amusing yourself at random in the open air.¹⁰

Fifteen towns make up the Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG.³ If you only have a day, spend it here. Our guide to the Prosecco hills, an hour from Venice has the train, the road and the lunch.

For the drive: towns along the wine road

• Pieve di Soligo. Halfway along the road. In its village of Solighetto, the 18th-century Villa Brandolini is home to the Conegliano Valdobbiadene consortium.² Good for lunch.
• Refrontolo. Home of the Molinetto della Croda, a 17th-century mill built straight onto the rock.¹¹
• Follina. A small town around a Cistercian abbey, Santa Maria di Follina,¹² with a cloister worth the detour.
• Farra di Soligo and Miane. Quiet villages in the vines. You will drive through them; slow down and look up.

Every town here makes Prosecco. Only some of them make lunch worth the drive.

On the plains: Treviso and Pordenone

The Prosecco DOC area is mostly flat, with some hills, across the Veneto and Friuli.¹ Two towns there are worth a stop.

• Treviso. The canal town about half an hour from Venice by train,⁶ in the province that holds both DOCG hill zones.¹³⁹ Our Treviso guide.
• Pordenone. Over the border in Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of the nine Prosecco DOC provinces.¹ Its arcaded main street, Corso Vittorio Emanuele, is the heart of the old town,¹⁴ and every autumn it hosts the Giornate del Cinema Muto, a festival of silent film.¹⁵ It’s not a wine destination. It’s a good dinner on the way east.

And Prosecco, the village

At the far eastern edge of the area, on the karst above Trieste, sits the small village of Prosecco, which gave the wine its name.¹⁶ There are no postcard hills, just the sea below you. Prosecco, the village: a day above Trieste.

Town by town: a field guide

• The completist. Wants to see all fifteen hill towns in a day. Will see the inside of a car.
• The lunch planner. Picks the town by the restaurant. Correct.
• The name-checker. Insists on visiting the village of Prosecco. Also correct, on a different day.
• You. Two towns, one long lunch, one tasting booked ahead. That’s the trip.