Prosecco Hills Trail

At a Glance

• Start / Finish: Vidor on the Piave (km 0.2) / Vittorio Veneto; the Camino Ninja map ends in the town area beyond Serravalle (km 50.5), and the map point for the town center lies 1.1 km off the trail
• Length: 52.2 km
• Duration: 4 stages of just under 11 to just under 16 km; fit hikers do it in 3 days
• Elevation: ↗ 2,689 m / ↘ 2,698 m
• Highest point: 579 m at km 47.2 between Nogarolo and Serravalle
• Landscape: steep hill ridges with vineyards on grass terraces, chestnut and black locust woods, villages with bell towers, the Pre-Alps to the north, the Revine lakes to the east
• Operator / Waymarking: Associazione per il Patrimonio delle Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Valdobbiadene; signposts and red-and-yellow paint marks
• Pilgrim passport / Certificate: not a Way of St. James, no Compostela; according to the operator, a free Credenziale with stamp boxes serves as a hiking passport
• Traces of St. James: none documented – the hamlet of San Giacomo at km 29.3 bears the apostle's name, but it is no evidence of pilgrimage; Follina, on the other hand, has a pilgrimage tradition centered on the Madonna del Sacro Calice
• Accommodation: agriturismi, B&Bs, small hotels and rooms at wineries; no pilgrim hostels, booking ahead is a must
• Connecting routes: none directly; the Via Postumia passes through Treviso about 20 km south of the hills, and a good 25 km as the crow flies west of Vidor the Via Romea Germanica (Italy) passes through Bassano del Grappa
• Best time: April to June and September to October; September and October are harvest season

Overview

The Prosecco Hills Trail is the shortest way to understand why a wine region can become a World Heritage Site. It links the two ends of the core zone, Vidor in the west and Vittorio Veneto in the east, and stays up on the ridges almost the whole time, where the vines grow so steep that much of the harvest is still done by hand. On July 7, 2019, the World Heritage Committee in Baku added the Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Valdobbiadene to the list – on the second attempt, as the nomination had been deferred in 2018. The trail turns that title into something you feel in your calves.

To be honest about what this is: it is not a Way of St. James, not a Camino and not a church pilgrimage route. There is no Compostela, no tomb at the end and no hostels where a pilgrim passport counts. The name San Giacomo at kilometer 29.3 is a place name, not a sign of a St. James route. What the trail offers instead is an astonishing density of history in a small space: an abbey whose cloister has stood since 1268, a World War I front line, and a town at the finish that was named after a king and is today mostly assumed to be named after a victory. In short: On average you climb a good 50 meters every kilometer – on a trail whose highest point doesn't even reach 600 meters.

Other Names

In Italian the trail is called Cammino delle Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Valdobbiadene, or Cammino delle Colline del Prosecco for short; internationally it goes by Prosecco Hills Trail, also Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Hills Trail. UNESCO lists the World Heritage Site itself as Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Valdobbiadene.

The word "Cammino" invites a misunderstanding: in Italian, any longer footpath is a cammino, whether it leads to a saint or through vineyards. The name has nothing to do with the Camino de Santiago.

Who It's Ideal For—and Who It's Not So Ideal For

Ideal if you have a long weekend and want ridges rather than flatland: the trail is short, easy to reach and so varied that hardly two kilometers look alike. Ideal too if, after a long Camino, you want to keep your legs moving and eat well in the evening – or if, before your first pilgrimage, you want to test how several days with a backpack and serious climbing suit you.

Honestly, though, it's not for you if you expect a pilgrimage route with hostels, pilgrim menus and community – here you sleep in agriturismi and B&Bs, and on the trail you meet day hikers rather than pilgrims. Not for you if you're after flat stages: over a good 52 kilometers nearly 2,700 meters of climbing add up, and many ascents are short and steep, straight through the rows of vines. And not for you if you don't drink alcohol and that bothers you: wine isn't a side note here, it's the reason the landscape looks the way it does.

Route & Landscape

Vidor to Follina (km 0–27.2): The trail starts in Vidor at 155 meters, where the Piave leaves the mountains for the plain, and right away climbs via Colbertaldo (km 2.9) and Rovede (km 3.2) into the first vineyard slopes. As far as Col San Martino (km 11.5) you switch from ridge to ridge, looking south over the plain and north to the Pre-Alps. Then the trail crosses the Soligo valley and continues via Pedeguarda (km 22.5) and Premaor (km 25.1) to Follina (km 27.2), where the abbey of Santa Maria stands in the middle of town.

Follina to Vittorio Veneto (km 27.2–52.2): Beyond Follina the trail leads via the hamlet of San Giacomo (km 29.3), Zuel di Là (km 34.7) and Arfanta (km 37.3) to Tarzo (km 41.4), above the Revine lakes. Via Nogarolo (km 45.0) it climbs one last time, to 579 meters at kilometer 47.2, then drops steeply down to Serravalle (km 50.5), the medieval half of Vittorio Veneto. The landscape is a mosaic of vines, woods and meadows throughout: the hills are so-called hogbacks, long, narrow ridges with one steep and one gentler flank, lying parallel to each other from west to east. The trail doesn't follow a single ridge but hops from one to the next – hence all the climbing.

Stages, Terrain, and Difficulty

We show the trail in 4 stages, and the stage towns have accommodation; the distances come from the Camino Ninja map, calibrated exactly to 52.2 km. If you want to cover more ground per day, do it in 3 days with overnight stops in Follina and Tarzo.

1. Vidor → Col San Martino (11.5 km) — a short start, but steep from the outset: via Colbertaldo and Rovede onto the first ridges, lots of vineyard with views over the plain.
2. Col San Martino → Follina (15.7 km) — the longest and toughest stage, several ridges in a row, down into the Soligo valley and via Pedeguarda and Premaor to the abbey.
3. Follina → Tarzo (14.2 km) — via San Giacomo, Zuel di Là and Arfanta, more forest, less wine, and at the end a view of the Revine lakes.
4. Tarzo → Vittorio Veneto (10.8 km) — via Nogarolo to the highest point (579 m) and steeply down into the old town of Serravalle.

Technically the trail is easy: farm tracks, forest paths, narrow paved lanes between the wineries, nothing exposed. What wears you out are the ramps – some sections through the vine rows are so steep that you'll slip on grass and clay when it's wet. For the last stage, the operator describes an easier northern variant via Fratta and Colmaggiore that avoids the steeper passages; our distances refer to the main route.

It's Not the Wine That's Protected – It's the Slope

Think Prosecco and you think bottles. But UNESCO didn't honor a wine; it honored a way of working. The region was inscribed in 2019 as a cultural landscape under criterion (v), with a core zone of a good 9,190 hectares in twelve municipalities, from Valdobbiadene and Vidor to Tarzo and Vittorio Veneto. The key word is ciglioni: narrow grass terraces holding the rows of vines, with no stone walls, held up only by soil and roots. UNESCO's justification puts it this way: "Since the 17th century, the use of ciglioni has created a particular chequerboard landscape consisting of rows of vines parallel and vertical to the slopes." In the 19th century came the bellussera, a training system in which the vines are trained radially on tall posts.

The wine has its own, shorter chronicle: Prosecco is first documented in writing in 1754, the wine-growing school in Conegliano was founded in 1876, the DOC came in 1969, and the DOCG for Conegliano Valdobbiadene in 2009. The landscape is older than any appellation – and it is no museum. According to the figures in the World Heritage dossier, the share of ciglioni in the vineyard area fell from 28 percent in 1960 to 20 percent in 2015; the rest is easier to farm and looks just like vineyards anywhere else. So on the trail you walk through what's left – and through exactly the slopes that machines can't work.

In practice this means: you'll see the finest ciglioni on the first half, between Vidor, Col San Martino and the Soligo valley, where the ridges are steepest. September and October are harvest season, when the slopes are full of pickers and the paths between the rows are at times closed or busy; in spring it is quieter and greener.

Highlights Along the Way

• Vidor (km 0.2) — start on the Piave; on the hill above the town stands the abbey of Santa Bona, founded by Benedictines from Pomposa, at its peak between 1175 and 1266, dissolved in 1773, nearly destroyed in World War I and rebuilt in the 1920s; today privately owned.
• Col San Martino (km 11.5) — wine village on the ridges; the little church of San Martino, built shortly after the year 1000 within the old castle and rebuilt as an octagon in 1927, gave the village its name; the church of San Vigilio dates from the 11th or 12th century and has 15th-century frescoes.
• Abbazia di Santa Maria in Follina (km 27.2) — first mentioned in 1127, originally Benedictine, Cistercian from the 12th century; cloister from 1268, the church completed between 1305 and 1335. Since 1915 the Servites have run the abbey. Venerated here is the stone Madonna del Sacro Calice, solemnly crowned in 1921.
• San Giacomo (km 29.3) — hamlet beyond Follina; the name recalls the apostle, but no pilgrimage history is documented.
• Tarzo (km 41.4) — first recorded in 1031 as "Tarçe," overlooking the two Revine lakes; in the district of Arfanta (km 37.3) stands the parish church of San Bartolomeo.
• Highest point (km 47.2) — 579 meters between Nogarolo and Serravalle, with the view down onto Vittorio Veneto and the plain.
• Serravalle (km 50.5) — medieval old town in the gorge of the Meschio; the da Camino family ruled here from 1154 to 1335, Venice from 1337. The Loggia della Comunità was rebuilt between 1462 and 1476, the cathedral of Santa Maria Nuova holds Titian's altarpiece "Madonna and Child in Glory with Saints Andrew and Peter," and San Lorenzo dei Battuti has 15th-century frescoes.
• Vittorio Veneto (km 52.2) — the finish, formed in 1866 by merging Ceneda and Serravalle, with the World War I museum.

Vittorio Doesn't Mean Victory – At Least Not at First

Arrive in Vittorio Veneto and you'll probably assume the town was named after the victory of 1918. That's only half true. On September 27, 1866, just weeks after the Veneto had passed to the young Kingdom of Italy, the two towns of Ceneda and Serravalle were united into one municipality; on November 22, 1866, with the king's permission, it received the name Vittorio – after Vittorio Emanuele II, not after a battle. "Veneto" was only added in 1923. In between came the last offensive of the war on the Italian front: from October 24 to November 4, 1918, Italian troops broke through the Austro-Hungarian lines on the Piave and Monte Grappa, and on October 30 they entered Vittorio. The Armistice of Villa Giusti was signed on November 3 and took effect on November 4.

At noon that same day, General Armando Diaz's war bulletin ended with the sentence generations of Italian schoolchildren learned by heart: "I resti di quello che fu uno dei più potenti eserciti del mondo risalgono in disordine e senza speranza le valli che avevano discese con orgogliosa sicurezza." (The remnants of what was one of the most powerful armies in the world are retreating, in disorder and without hope, up the valleys they had descended with proud confidence.) The hills you walk across lay directly behind this front for a whole year. After the retreat from Caporetto in the fall of 1917, the people of Col San Martino had to leave their village; 264 civilians died of hunger and deprivation, and 88 soldiers from the village were killed.

And one last twist: in Ceneda, the town's other half, Lorenzo Da Ponte was born in 1749 – the man who later wrote the libretti for Mozart's "Le nozze di Figaro," "Don Giovanni" and "Così fan tutte." So the man who put the Champagne Aria in Don Giovanni's mouth came from Prosecco country.

How Pilgrims Find Their Way onto This Path

No Way of St. James or other pilgrimage route feeds into Vidor. Most people arrive by train and bus from Venice, Treviso or Conegliano and walk the trail as a standalone tour. If you're on a longer route in the Veneto, you can work it in as a detour: the Via Postumia from Trieste to Genoa crosses the Veneto via Latisana, Oderzo and Treviso, about 20 km south of the Prosecco hills; in our map, however, it shares no place with the trail. You'll have to bridge that gap yourself by bus or train.

Continue the pilgrimage?

Not directly on foot – the trail ends in Vittorio Veneto without a waymarked pilgrimage route continuing from there. If you want to switch to a route with a pilgrimage tradition afterwards, you have two options nearby:

• Via Postumia — Way of St. James from Trieste to Genoa, largely on the old Roman road, passing through Treviso about 20 km south of the hills; operator and waymarking are not clearly established; join it via the towns of the plain
• Via Romea Germanica (Italy) — pilgrimage route from the Brenner Pass to Rome, which passes through Bassano del Grappa a good 25 km as the crow flies west of Vidor, then continues via Padua, Ferrara and Ravenna

Both require getting there by bus or train. Honestly, the Prosecco Hills Trail is more of a walk in its own right than a building block in a longer pilgrimage chain.

Preparation & Practical Information

Hiking passport and app. You don't need a pilgrim passport (credencial) in the Camino sense here: there are no pilgrim hostels that require one, and no Compostela at the end. The operating association says it offers a free Credenziale with stamp boxes that you can request on its website; you get stamps at tourist offices, bars and wineries, and there is no church certificate. With the Camino Ninja App you have the map and track offline; the easiest way is to plan the trail right in the app, where you put your stages together and plan suitable accommodation along with them.

Accommodation and season. You stay in agriturismi, B&Bs and small hotels in the stage towns or just off the trail; there is no network of hostels, and on weekends between May and October the good places book up early. Book your lodgings before you set off and ask whether your host will pick you up from the trail if the house is out of the way. The best seasons are spring and fall; in July and August the ridges are hot with little shade, and in winter the paths through the vine rows are often muddy.

Gear. Sturdy hiking boots with good tread, poles for the steep descents and at least 1.5 liters of water per stage. The operator provides the official GPS track for free; the waymarking is good, but not always clear at forks in the vineyards.

What the journey will cost you

The Credenziale and the trail are free. A room in a B&B or agriturismo usually costs 80 to 130 € for two people with breakfast, 60 to 90 € if you're traveling alone; simple inns are a bit cheaper (as of October 2026). For dinner in an osteria with a glass of Prosecco Superiore, budget 25 to 40 €, and 10 to 25 € for a tasting at a winery.

All in all, count on 70 to 110 € per day and person if you're traveling as a couple, more if you're on your own. Honestly, that's more expensive than any Spanish Camino – but in return you get a room instead of a dorm, and food that others travel here specially for. Train rides in the region cost only a few euros.

Getting Here

To the start. Vidor has no train station. The nearest airports are Venice Marco Polo and Treviso; from there take the train to Treviso or Conegliano and then the regional bus to Vidor, or alternatively take the train to Montebelluna or Cornuda and from there a bus or taxi across the Piave.

From the finish. Vittorio Veneto is on the Conegliano–Ponte nelle Alpi railway line with two stops, Vittorio Veneto in the center and Soffratta in the Ceneda district. In Conegliano you change to trains toward Treviso and Venice; the ride to Conegliano takes about a quarter of an hour.

• Train: trenitalia.com — regional trains to Conegliano, Vittorio Veneto, Montebelluna and Treviso
• Bus: mobilitadimarca.it — regional buses in the province of Treviso, including to Vidor
• Trail: collineconeglianovaldobbiadene.it — the World Heritage site's operating association, track and Credenziale