The shining white Sanctuary of the Madonna di Monte Berico basilica, located on the hill overlooking Vicenza, is visible throughout the city below, as shown in this picture taken on June 16, 2026. (Chad Garland/Stars and Stripes)
About a week before arriving in Vicenza, I told someone the first fun thing I wanted to do was trek up to the Sanctuary of the Madonna di Monte Berico along a path under porticos that for centuries have sheltered pilgrims on their journeys.
And then on arrival, I promptly forgot about those plans. The closest I got was on an impromptu drive on one of my first nights in town, when my family and I stopped to view the sunset from the terrace across from the awe-inspiring church on the hill overlooking Vicenza.
The roughly half-mile walk up to the church atop the mountain isn’t a best-kept-secret kind of thing. Rather, it’s exactly the type of obvious and doable activity that one might neglect for far too long.
I waited until a recent afternoon when the temperature peaked somewhere in the sticky mid-80s, making for just the right kind of almost penitential discomfort.
There are two routes up the hill, both a short walk from the bus stops at Viale Risorgimento Fronte Civico 24 or Viale Risorgimento 22 along the train tracks at the southern edge of Vicenza’s historic core, but in opposite directions.
To enter the porticos at the base of the hill, head west to Viale X Giugno and follow the tree-lined street until there’s a break in the foliage where the arcades begin on the left.
Or head east to the Arco delle Scalette, a triumphal arch that serves as the gateway to a long staircase up the hill.
Topped with statues of patron saints Leontius and Carpophorus flanking a Venetian lion, it features internal niches adorned with Orazio Marinali’s representation of the Annunciation, the biblical account of the angel Gabriel’s visit to Mary to tell her she would give birth to Jesus. It’s the kind of Renaissance beauty that spoils us here.
A visitor passes through the final arch of the 700-meter Portico di Monte Berico route in front of the Sanctuary of the Madonna di Monte Berico at the top of the hill overlooking Vicenza on June 16, 2026. (Chad Garland/Stars and Stripes)
A silvery bas-relief depicting the Madonna’s apparition before a local peasant woman in Vicenza in the early 15th century is displayed behind the altar of the church dedicated to the Madonna atop Monte Berico. On June 16, 2026, visitors made offertory donations and took the time to lay their hands on the sculpture during their visit. (Chad Garland/Stars and Stripes)
A woman walks up the incline June 16, 2026, beneath the porticos of Monte Berico heading toward the basilica on the hill overlooking Vicenza, Italy. The porticos provide a covered path toward the site where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared six centuries ago. (Chad Garland/Stars and Stripes)
Votive offerings of metallic hearts, representing “graces received,” are displayed alongside photos of twisted car wrecks near a gift shop situated behind the basilica shrine of the Madonna di Monte Berico. These offerings testify to the apparent intercession of Vicenza's patron saint, who is believed to assist accident victims, as observed on June 16, 2026. (Chad Garland/Stars and Stripes)
The stairs lead to a narrow road that eventually opens onto the hairpin turn known as the Curva del Cristo, where the portico-covered path’s two sections meet.
The ornate arch is believed to be based on a drawing by architect Andrea Palladio. Created in about 1575, the drawing was part of a plan for the route up the hill to the site where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to a peasant woman six centuries ago.
After the Madonna di Monte Berico’s second appearance there, offering in 1428 to end a plague outbreak in return for the construction of a church dedicated in her name, a Gothic church was erected in three months and a monastery soon thereafter.
Palladio himself built the church a nave in 1578, though no trace of that structure remains, as it was demolished during construction of a later Baroque church from 1688 to 1703. A bell tower was added between 1825 and 1852.
A man on a scooter rides between the porticos of Monte Berico and the Sanctuary of the Madonna di Monte Berico basilica in Vicenza, Italy, on June 16, 2026. Many bicyclists, motorcyclists and scooter riders pass by the church, a blend of Gothic and Baroque architecture, as they enjoy rides into the hills beyond. (Chad Garland/Stars and Stripes)
It’s one of those odd contrasts of modern life in Italy that the ascent to a 600-year-old shrine adorned with statues of martyrs and saints begins at an arch inspired by classical Roman architecture that is now frequented by joggers in bright synthetic fabrics.
After surmounting the steps and following the road around to the Curva del Cristo, visitors who cross over to the porticos will enter near a small shrine featuring a crucifix and a statue of Mary at an altar behind locked gates.
Built between 1746 and 1780, the porticos are made up of 150 arches, divided into groups of 10. The numbering is patterned after the decades of the rosary, in which sets of 10 Hail Marys are grouped into 15 mysteries from the life of Jesus Christ.
While the structure is said to be favored by the faithful on their pilgrimages, I noted that a more fitness-minded crowd seemed to prefer an open-air paved path across the road.
Some visitors have complained online of encounters with homeless people in the portico section, but the only aggression I met was from mosquitoes.
At the top of the hill, I first dallied a bit in the Piazzale della Vittoria, venturing to the large terrace to admire the beauty of the towers, cupolas and copper-green domes amid the dozens of clay tile roofs of the city below, all bathed in warm afternoon sunlight.
Inside the basilica, which has served the faithful on their pilgrimages since the early 15th century, evening Mass was concluding when I entered.
The church itself houses several important works of art, and a museum behind the sanctuary exhibits hundreds of artifacts and works of art donated over the centuries in gratitude to God. The museum is accessible through a passage next to the altar.
Back outside, a cafe in the shade of the basilica’s bell tower offers coffee, gelato, aperitifs, pastries and other treats.
Visitors relax at the cafe beneath the bell tower of the Sanctuary of the Madonna di Monte Berico on the warm afternoon of June 16, 2026. (Chad Garland/Stars and Stripes)
After getting only a bottled water, a further penance, I lingered in the shade of the basilica steps nearby, listening to the pleasant burble of patrons and the excited chatter of the many swallows or swifts flitting and gliding around in the sky above them.
I began to see how a sweat-inducing trip up to this sanctuary could become a daily or weekly ritual.
On the QT
Address: For the church, Viale X Giugno, 87, Vicenza, Italy. The porticos are roughly at Viale X Giugnio 2. The Arco delle Scalette is at Piazzale Fraccon.
Hours: The Arco delle Scalette and the porticos are open all hours. For the Sanctuary of the Madonna di Monte Berico: Monday through Saturday, 6 a.m.-12:30 p.m. and 2:30-6 p.m. (7 p.m. in summer); Sunday, 6 a.m.-7 p.m. (8 p.m. in summer). Check website for Mass times. For the art museum: Monday through Friday, by appointment; Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m.-noon and 2-6 p.m.
Cost: For the museum, a donation of 3 euros is recommended.
Information: Phone: +39 0444 559411; online: monteberico.it or easyvi.it/monumenti
