Cittadella City Walls

Cittadella's walls are a complete thirteenth-century ellipse -- about 1,460 metres round, 14 metres high, 32 towers, four gates and a wet moat -- and since 2013 the full circuit can be walked along the rampart. It is one of very few medieval wall circuits in Europe you can walk in its entirety.

The rampart runs directly above inhabited streets and gardens -- you are walking past people's upper windows, which is worth remembering before photographing.

The ticket funds the maintenance of thirteenth-century brickwork under continuous foot traffic, and it costs very little.

The station is beside the gate, which makes this one of the few sights in the Veneto genuinely easier to reach by train than by car.

Ticketed and inexpensive, entered at Porta Bassano; hours are seasonal and shorter in winter, so check before travelling. The circuit takes 45 minutes to an hour at an easy pace.

The station is a few minutes' walk from the gate, with Padua about 30 minutes away and Bassano about 20. There are stairs and the walkway is not step-free.

Spring and autumn are the most comfortable. Winter after rain gives the best mountain view of the year, when the Dolomites stand snow-covered on the horizon -- cold and exposed, but worth it.

Avoid midday in summer: there is no shade anywhere on the walkway.

Fog can erase the view completely for days at a time in winter, which is the one thing that makes the walk pointless.