On the A22, 60 km South of Bolzano. The regional capital, a clean and unassuming town, has faded frescos on house façades, restored frescos at Castello Buonconsiglio (the name recalls an ecclesiastical milestone, the Council of Trent of 1545), a spotless piazza, cathedral and fountain group, a bishop’s palace and a clock-tower decorated with fish-tail battlements. Open-air theatre and concerts on the piazza. Pavement cafés with fine ice-cream and delectable macedonie of the soft fruits which grow abundantly round about. (Even lemons and oranges thrive in Trentino’s valleys.)

The skyline is a tumbled chaos of peaks, slashed with snow like the foam of a stormy sea. Trento’s own mountain, Bondone (2,000 m), is at the end of a zigzag 14-km road. Long favoured by hill-walkers, it claims to have seen the launch of winter sports in the 1930s. Chairlifts ascend to a panoramic glass restaurant on a neighbouring summit at 2,100 m.

Detour – Andalo

On Route 45bis 38 km North West of Trento. An Alpine township on a lake, transformed but not spoiled by the tourist boom. Mountain lifts take you to the Paganella summit at 2,103 m, an aerial platform overlooking one of the most celebrated views of the Alps. Andalo is also a base-camp for mountaineers. Skating rinks at the hotels and a bus service to Trento and the Garda.

Detour – Rovereto

Off the A22, 24 km South of Trento. Motorists in transit curse its narrow streets, pedestrians its flights of steps. Vineyards come down to the triangular walls and bastions of a Venetian castle which houses The Italian War museum. The town, an interchange of lake traffic, tempts the passing trade with an Olympic swimming-pool, riding schools, bowling, tennis, clay-pigeon shoots, athletic tracks and son et lumière. The neighbourhood produces classic wines, including the red Marzemino prescribed by Mozart in the last act of Don Giovanni.