Treviso isn’t a destination on a traveler’s first itinerary to Italy, but only a half-hour train ride from La Serenissima, it’s worth a daytrip especially for medievalists, poets, and foodies.

Originally named “Tarvisium, Treviso became a municipium in 89 BC after the Romans added Cisalpine Gaul to their dominions, but, revered in verse by Dante and Petrarch, its heyday and significant monuments date to the Middle Ages: its massive city walls; the Romanesque Cathedral dedicated to St. Peter with its cupola later painted by Tiepolo and its altarpiece by Titian; its diocesan museum next door; the Dominican Church of San Nicola with the first artwork depicting eyeglasses; the Church of San Francesco with the tombs of Dante’s oldest son Pietro, who wrote the first commentary of the Divine Comedy, and of Petrarch’s oldest daughter Francesca; and the splendid Piazza dei Signori.