Treviso: Prosecco’s home province

What does Treviso mean on a Prosecco label?

Prosecco DOC Treviso means the grapes were grown in the province of Treviso and the wine was made and bottled there, under the same Prosecco DOC rules as everywhere else.¹ It is a place name, not a style: it tells you where, not how sweet or how fizzy.

It is also the province that holds the hills. Conegliano Valdobbiadene and Asolo, the two zones whose wine is labelled Prosecco Superiore DOCG, both lie in the province of Treviso.²³ If Prosecco has a home address, this is it.

Where is Treviso?

In the Veneto, north of Venice,³ about half an hour away on the train line to Conegliano and the hills.⁴ It’s the stop most people sleep through on the way up.

Is Treviso worth visiting?

Yes, for a morning or a slow day. It is a water town: the river Sile and a web of streams and canals run through it.⁵ There are porticoes with painted ceilings, and a mill wheel by the fish market, rebuilt to look like the old ones.⁶ The fish market itself sits on an island in the Cagnan Grande.⁶ And it has the thing Venice has given up on, which is a town that mostly belongs to the people who live in it.

• The canals. Walk the Buranelli and the Cagnan in the morning, when the water is quiet.⁶
• The fish market. On its island, in the morning, closed Sundays and Mondays.⁶ Look, don’t touch, buy something you can eat standing up nearby.
• The porticoes. Look up at the painted ceilings, then find a table underneath for the afternoon glass.
• Tiramisù. Treviso calls it the town’s own dessert, though other towns and regions contest the claim.⁶ Order it. It would be rude not to.

A town that mostly belongs to the people who live in it.

Treviso at aperitivo: a field guide

• The bicycle crowd. Everyone cycles here, in good shoes, carrying shopping, and somehow arrives for the spritz on time.
• The under-the-portico regulars. Same table, same hour, same glass. They have watched Venice fill up and feel fine about it.
• The Venetians on a day off. Up for lunch to eat somewhere with no queue. They will not tell their friends.
• You. Got off the train one stop early. Correct decision.

From Treviso to the Prosecco hills

Keep going north on the same line and you reach Conegliano, at the edge of the hills,² in well under an hour.⁴ From there it is the wine road, Cartizze and lunch. Our guide to the Prosecco hills, an hour from Venice has the rest.

Treviso in a glass

Bella Principessa is Prosecco DOC from the province of Treviso, and it is Brut: dry, fresh, made for the aperitivo hour. Pour it under a portico if you have one. A kitchen counter works.