Marostica Geography & Climate

The town lies at about 100 metres at the southern foot of the Altopiano di Asiago, roughly 30 km north-east of Vicenza and 8 km west of Bassano del Grappa.

Its site is a defensive one: a hillside spur -- the Pausolino -- standing out from the plateau's edge into the plain. The lower town occupies the flat ground, the upper castle the spur's summit, and the wall connects them straight up the slope.

The slopes on either side are the cherry country. The combination of sheltered south-facing hillside, well-drained soil and the plateau behind cutting the north wind is exactly what the crop needs, and the IGP zone covers this belt of foothill communes.

Behind the town the ground climbs steeply to the Asiago plateau at 1,000 metres and above -- a wholly different landscape of pasture and forest, and the site of the heaviest fighting of the Italian First World War.

Summers (June-August) are warm and humid, generally in the high twenties, with thunderstorms building over the plateau in the afternoons. The hillside and the walls give shade the open plain lacks.

Winters (December-February) are cold, with frost common and occasional snow. The plateau above holds snow through the winter, and it is often visible from the square while the town itself is clear.

Spring comes early on the sheltered south-facing slopes, which is the whole basis of the cherry crop -- and also its main risk, since a late frost in April can take the blossom.

Rainfall is well distributed with spring and autumn peaks, heavier than the open plain because of the mountains behind.