Tom`s travels: Bycicle trip in the Colli Berici 2 (10/05/2020)

On a nice sunny and warm afternoon, my brother and I decided to go on a bicycle trip along the Berici Hills. We took my aunt's and Davide's electric bikes and headed south of Vicenza following the bicycle path. After passing lush green wheat fields we reached the town of Castegnero, which I had just visited a few days prior. Here I had told my brother we would find plenty of cherries; we in fact did and eat a few of them and the rest we put into a bag to take back home. From there we continued cycling onwards heading up and down some low hills covered in vineyards until we reached the town of Mossano. Here we parked our bikes in front of the church of San Pietro Apostolo and entered a little park that featured a viewpoint. We could see a vast array of vineyards below and the Euganean Hills in the distance. We then decided to continue and after just a few hundred meters reached the Valley of the Mills, a small valley right below the main town where a series of watermills are set. These mills were built in succession one after the other on some small rivers running downhill and were used until after the Second World War. Once we saw them we then cycled further and reached the town of Barbarano Vicentino. Nowadays Mossano and Barbarano are joined into one municipality but until just two years ago they were split despite their proximity. We reached the city center and circled the nice main square where the church of Santa Maria Assunta is located. Next to it is the House of the Canons, thus belonging to the local clergy, now the seat of the public library; it features a nice Gothic facade with elegant windows. On a hill just south of the city center we then reached what was once a mighty castle. The castle was mentioned often during the 13th and 14th centuries and was a direct possession of the bishop of Vicenza. Later on when it passed into the hands of the Godi family it was turned into a villa with a nice garden around it and a baroque chapel. The traces of the castle are now just visible on the southern walls of this villa which is now called Villa Godi Marinoni. We then decided it was time to head back home, so after cycling back down into town we passed by some nice vineyards and reconnected with the cycling path that eventually led us back to Vicenza.