The Perdonanze loop

We start from piazza del Duomo, with excellent parking and various places to sleep, eat, or simply refresh yourself. In the square, we also find the Battle Museum, recently revisited and restored for the anniversary of the end of the First World War. We take the road heading north, making our first stop at the splendid Villa Papadopoli which hosts some of the most interesting monumental trees in the Treviso area. Leaving the villa, we head towards Castello del Vescovo “Fortifications of Ceneda – I Palazi” along via Brevia, then turning onto via S. Rocco leaving the road that leads to the Castle, which is still visitable with a 5-minute detour.

At the end of the first climb, we leave the road that goes up to the hill of S. Paolo (with the Stations of the Cross) and climb to the left up to the hill of S. Rocco with its namesake small church and splendid view over the entire historic center, the hills on the east side, and the Cansiglio. From here we descend along the suggestive staircase that leads us to Borgo San Fris. 

Once down on the main road, follow it to the right towards the hills. After about a hundred meters, we will find a sign to the left for the small church of Madonna di Loreto, Perdonanze. We take it and begin the Cai path 1042. We will follow the path initially along the stream and then in a steep climb crossing over the highway.

The environment is wild with a typical thermophilous forest and sedimentary rock surroundings such as evident sandstones and conglomerates that characterize the entire zone of the Vittorio hills. We avoid all left turns indicating Montebello or Bigontina ridge and reach a small shrine and the Case Botteon, a village with a mountain atmosphere.

Here we find a crossroads: the road descending to the left will be taken later to return to Vittorio, but now we follow the main path finding after a few meters a three-way junction that allows us to continue our hike towards S. Lorenzo-Monte Baldo (still path 1042). Instead, we continue along the main road arriving at the small church of Madonna di Loreto, the highest point of our itinerary. From here the road continues towards Tarzo. We then return to Borgo Botteon and follow downhill the partly white, partly paved road that descends to the Trenches area. 

We continue for about 300 m on the white road. Exactly where the asphalt starts, we can take a steep path down to the left and thus avoid continuing on asphalt. A little further on, we also find the excellent Osteria delle Perdonanze. We follow the descending path along via Montebello until reaching beside a sheep enclosure, cross the highway again, and return to the Perdonanze road. We emerge then on via Gallina and arrive at a small shrine dedicated to the Celestial Queen of the Rosary, and from here we quickly return to the Piazza del Duomo di Ceneda.