Discover Via Mezzaterra

The street is narrow and arcaded in stretches, climbing steadily from the lower gate to the square, with the buildings pressing close on both sides.

The houses are of the sixteenth-century rebuilding: three and four storeys, plastered, with regular windows and, on many, a full scheme of exterior fresco -- mythological scenes, architectural illusion, coats of arms and grotesque ornament.

This was normal in the Veneto in the sixteenth century, including in Venice itself, where the Fondaco dei Tedeschi was frescoed by Giorgione and Titian. Almost all of it has since weathered away. Feltre's survival rate is the point: the street gives an idea of what a painted Renaissance townscape actually looked like.

The Porta Imperiale closes the lower end and Piazza Maggiore the upper.