Euganean Hills
Encyclopedia
The Euganean Hills are a group of hills of volcanic origin that rise to heights of 300 to 600 meters from the Padovan-Venetian plain a few kilometers south of Padua
Padua
Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...

. The Colli Euganei form the first regional park established in the Veneto
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...

, (1989) enclosing fifteen towns and eighty-one hills. The name memorializes that of the Euganei
Euganei
The Euganei is a semi-mythical proto-Italic ethnic group that dwelt an area among Adriatic Sea and Rhaetian Alps...

, an ancient people who inhabited the region upon contact with the Romans
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

.

The Euganean Hills were formed in a sub-marine outwelling of basalt
Basalt
Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...

ic lava during the Eocene
Eocene
The Eocene Epoch, lasting from about 56 to 34 million years ago , is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Palaeocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. The start of the...

, which was followed in the Oligocene
Oligocene
The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 34 million to 23 million years before the present . As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are slightly...

 by an episode of activity characterized by viscous magma, which formed deposits of trachyte
Trachyte
Trachyte is an igneous volcanic rock with an aphanitic to porphyritic texture. The mineral assemblage consists of essential alkali feldspar; relatively minor plagioclase and quartz or a feldspathoid such as nepheline may also be present....

.

The Euganean Hills, just visible from Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

, have been celebrated for their picturesque beauty and their hot springs. In the Euganean Hills, at Arquà, which now bears his name attached to it, Petrarch
Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca , known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism"...

 found peace and harmony towards the end of his life. He discovered the village in 1369; there, he stated in his letter to posterity, "I have built me a house, small, but pleasant and decent, in the midst of slopes clothed with vines and olives,"—a house that may be seen there today. The Euganean hills, like an archipelago of steep-sided wooded islands rising from the perfectly flat agricultural plain, inspired the setting of Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron...

's "Lines Written in the Euganean Hills"; Shelley likens the hill he has found himself upon, at first to an island in "the deep wide sea of Misery", then he sees that
Beneath is spread like a green sea
The waveless plain of Lombardy,
Bounded by the vaporous air,
Islanded by cities fair—

which brings his thoughts to Venice "thou hast been/Ocean's child, and then his queen;/Now is come a darker day," and finally to a wish for an idyllic retreat.

The Regional Park of the Euganean Hills

The Parco Regionale dei Colli Euganei was established in 1989 by the Veneto Region. It covers an area of about 18,000 hectares. The park offers a wide choice of recreational, naturalistic, historical and touristic activities.

Communes of the Euganean Hills

  • Abano Terme
    Abano Terme
    Abano Terme is a town and comune in the province of Padua, in the Veneto region, Italy, on the eastern slope of the Colli Euganei; it is 10 kilometers southwest by rail from Padua. Abano Terme's population is 19,062 .The town's hot springs and mud baths are the main economic resource...

  • Arquà Petrarca
    Arquà Petrarca
    Arquà Petrarca is a town and municipality in northeastern Italy, in the Veneto region, in the province of Padua.As of 2007 the estimated population of Arquà Petrarca was 1,835....

  • Baone
    Baone
    Baone is a comune in the Province of Padua in the Italian region Veneto, located about 50 km southwest of Venice and about 25 km southwest of Padua...

  • Battaglia Terme
    Battaglia Terme
    Battaglia Terme is a town and comune in the Veneto region of Italy, in the province of Padua.Battaglia lies at the easternmost edge of the volcanic Euganean Hills, and has been noted for its warm saline springs and natural vapour grotto since the Middle Ages.-History:The construction of the...

  • Cervarese Santa Croce
    Cervarese Santa Croce
    Cervarese Santa Croce is a comune in the Province of Padua in the Italian region Veneto, located about 50 km west of Venice and about 14 km west of Padua...

  • Cinto Euganeo
    Cinto Euganeo
    Cinto Euganeo is a comune in the Province of Padua in the Italian region Veneto, located about 50 km southwest of Venice and about 20 km southwest of Padua. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 2,104 and an area of 19.7 km².Cinto Euganeo borders the following...

  • Este
    Este
    The House of Este is a European princely dynasty. It is split into two branches; the elder is known as the House of Welf-Este or House of Welf historically rendered in English, Guelf or Guelph...

  • Galzignano Terme
    Galzignano Terme
    Galzignano Terme is a comune in the Province of Padua in the Italian region Veneto, located about 50 km southwest of Venice and about 15 km southwest of Padua.-Main sights:...

  • Lozzo Atestino
    Lozzo Atestino
    Lozzo Atestino is a comune in the Province of Padua in the Italian region Veneto, located about 60 km southwest of Venice and about 25 km southwest of Padua, in the Colli Euganei regional park....

  • Monselice
    Monselice
    Monselice is a town and municipality located in northeastern Italy, in the Veneto region, in the province of Padua.It is about 20 km southeast of the city of Padua, at the southern edge of the Euganean Hills .-History:...

  • Montegrotto Terme
    Montegrotto Terme
    Montegrotto Terme is a comune in the Province of Padua in the Italian region Veneto, located about 45 km west of Venice and about 11 km southwest of Padua.Montegrotto Terme is a spa resort, part of the Terme Euganee spas...

  • Rovolon
    Rovolon
    Rovolon is a comune in the Province of Padua in the Italian region Veneto, located about 50 km west of Venice and about 15 km southwest of Padua...

  • Teolo
    Teolo
    Teolo is a comune in the Province of Padua in the Italian region Veneto, located about 50 km west of Venice and about 15 km southwest of Padua....

  • Torreglia
    Torreglia
    Torreglia is a comune in the Province of Padua in the Italian region Veneto, located about 45 km west of Venice and about 14 km southwest of Padua. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 5,978 and an area of 18.8 km²....

  • VO
    VO can refer to:* Austrian Arrows' IATA code* Data transfer object, formerly known as Value Object* Seagram's VO Whiskey* Vanadium oxide, an inorganic compound* Velocity obstacle* Virtual organization...


Wines of the Colli Euganei

Thirteen wineries have grouped together under the recently-established Colli Euganei denomination. Wines consist of the White, with its typical straw-yellow colour and jasmine scent, the Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon reds, the Chardonnay, the Fior d’Arancio, the very sweet yellow Moscato, the Merlot, the Novello, the dry Pinello, White Pinot, Red Wine, the sparkling Serprino and the Tocai Italico ("Italic Tokay").
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