Italy Guide
The Veneto
Basilica di Monte Bérico
In 1426 Vicenza was struck by bubonic plague, during the course of which outbreak the Virgin is said to have appeared twice at the summit of Monte Bérico – the hill on the southern edge of the city – to announce the city's deliverance. The chapel raised on the site of her appearance became a place of pilgrimage, and at the end of the seventeenth century it was replaced by the present Basilica di Monte Bérico. On foot it takes around thirty minutes from the centre of town. Bus #18 climbs the hill every twenty minutes at peak times from Viale Roma, the road running into the centre from the station. When it is not running you can catch a long-distance bus – #6 bound for Barbarano Vicentino – from the bus station, and get off at Monte Bérico, or even take a taxi, as it is not that far.
Pilgrims regularly arrive here by the busload, and the glossy interior of the church is immaculately maintained to receive them. Those in search of artistic fulfilment should venture into the church for Montagna's pietà (in the chapel to the right of the apse) and The Supper of St Gregory the Great by Veronese (in the refectory). The latter, the prototype of The Feast in the House of Levi in Venice's Accademia, was used for bayonet practice by Austrian troops in 1848 – the small reproduction nearby shows what a thorough job the vandals and subsequent restorers did.