Marostica discovery guide

Marostica is a small walled town that got one thing exactly right. The Piazza degli Scacchi is paved as a chessboard, permanently, and every second September it is used as one -- a costumed game with living pieces, staged since 1954 on the strength of a local legend about two suitors ordered to settle a marriage over the board rather than with swords.

What makes it worth the trip in the other twenty-three months is the wall. Built by the Scaligeri of Verona in the 1370s, it runs from the lower castle on the square straight up the hillside to the upper castle, and you can walk it. The climb takes twenty-five minutes and delivers the Asiago plateau, the Venetian plain and the whole town below.

And it is a cherry town. The Ciliegia di Marostica has been IGP-protected since 2002, and in late May and June the slopes and the markets are full of it.

Late May and June are the best months: cherry season, warm without being hot, and the hillside walk at its most pleasant.

September of even-numbered years brings the Partita a Scacchi, on the second weekend. Tickets sell out well in advance and the town is full -- plan for it deliberately or avoid it deliberately, but do not arrive unaware.

September and October otherwise are quiet and clear, with good visibility from the upper castle toward the plateau.

Winter is cold and very quiet. The square and the lower castle are still worth an hour, and the hill walk is fine in dry weather, but there is little else open.

If you travel slowly: Marostica works best as an overnight from Bassano rather than a rushed stop. Two hours covers the square and the lower castle; the walk up to the upper castle and back needs half a day if you take it properly.

If you want the essentials: Piazza degli Scacchi, the Castello Inferiore, and the walk up the wall to the Castello Superiore. That is the town.

If you're after local character: cherry season, late May into June, when the markets and the roadside stalls on the slopes are full of them and every restaurant has a cherry dessert.

If you want to go past the obvious: the Chess Game is only every second year, but the costumes, armour and staging are on display in the Castello Inferiore year-round, which is a better way to understand it than fighting for a seat at the event.

Marostica's visitor pressure is almost entirely concentrated into a handful of days. During the Partita a Scacchi weekend the town takes many times its normal numbers; for the rest of the year it is genuinely quiet, and the shops and restaurants on the square depend on that ordinary trade. Coming outside the event is better for the town and much better for you.

The hillside walls are medieval masonry on a steep slope, maintained by the municipality with limited resources. Stay on the path rather than scrambling the banks, which erode.

The cherry orchards on the surrounding slopes are working farmland, and the IGP has a real season -- roughly late May to early July. Buying at the local markets in season puts money directly into the growers rather than into a supply chain.

The town is small and the centre is largely closed to traffic; park outside the walls and walk, which is what residents do.

What a visitor actually spends in Marostica

Marostica is inexpensive except during the chess weekend, when accommodation across the whole Bassano area prices accordingly. Everything else about the town is cheap.