Volcanic in origin, the Colli Euganei are best known for their spa towns, Abano, Montegrotto and others which now form one hydropathic unit with more than 130 hotels and scores of swimming-pools, attractively integrated into a landscape of depopulated inner valleys and outer farmland. On Sundays the hills are alive with day tourists and numbers of cheerful trattorie cater for them. There are castles, monasteries, Palladian villas and beautifully landscaped 17thC gardens set in old feudal parks. At the Praglia monastery you can see the monks busy at their lifelong tasks of restoring old books.

In the southern ramifications of the hills are the historic townships of Arqua Petrarca, Este and Monselice. Long ago they provided guides for crossing the flood plains of Po and Adige, which used to reach to their walls. Este’s towers and battlements climb up the hill through gardenlike scenery. From this tiny base sprang the all-powerful Este family, lords of Ferrara and Modena.