San Martino della Vaneza Castle

Cycling around the Euganean Hills we discovered this castle, along the bank of the Bacchiglione. Once at the centre of river trade, it also became a small hamlet. There was an ancient little church dedicated to San Martino, destroyed in the 1600s. Today inside it there's an archaeological museum of the river civilisation of the Bacchiglione; it preserves prehistoric finds from the Bronze Age, Roman finds, medieval ceramics and tools, and a collection of river charts. The miracle of cycling is that it lets you glimpse something you never have time to admire by car.