Italy's smaller, smarter alternative to Venice
AlamyAs Venice struggles with crowds and pollution, nearby Treviso is quietly proving that sustainability and good taste can go hand in hand.
The air is thick with salt and butter as a bowl of tagliatelle tangled with melted anchovies and shaved cod's roe arrives at my table beside the canal. The sharp pop of a cork breaks the hum of restaurant chatter and waitress pours a glass of local white wine. Lunch has arrived.
"This is the king of butters," I'm told by my waitress, who says the Alpine butter – Primiero Botìro – coating my pasta is a regional speciality. Made in mountain dairies during July and September from raw milk, she says, "it tastes best now".
It's September and I'm in Treviso, one of northern Italy's most quietly delicious destinations and a place many travellers only pass through, landing here on low-cost carriers and then heading straight to nearby Venice. However, Treviso is worth a stop: a historic walled city laced with canals, where tiramisù first appeared on menus and radicchio and prosecco shape everyday life.
Most recently, it's a destination turning heads by becoming the first Italian city to win the European Green Leaf Award, an EU initiative that recognises the environmental efforts of smaller towns and cities (20,000-100,000 residents).
With a population of nearly 94,000, Treviso impressed judges by transforming an abandoned landfill into a solar park, overhauling its canal system to improve water quality and launching biodiversity projects to clean its air. The green drive is also expanding beyond the city, into the Unesco-listed Prosecco Hills, where wine producers are adopting sustainable practices to combat climate change.
Treviso's efforts offer an interesting counterpoint to Venice, just 30 minutes away, which continues to buckle under overtourism, lagoon pollution and infrastructure strains. The ancient city's long-heralded day-tripper fee raised millions in revenue but has failed to significantly curb tourists, which still average around 13,000 per day in 2025, compared with 16,676 in 2024.
Alamy"We are very proud of our city," says Alessandro Manera, Treviso's deputy mayor. "It was something of a challenge to show that an Italian city could win this award. The target of the award isn't to [be] the most lovely, green city in Europe. It's about showing who is improving."
Since launching its sustainable mission seven years ago, Treviso has built kilometres of new bike lanes to reduce car usage, implemented school programmes on recycling and planted 6,000 additional trees. Trees, says Manera, play a major role in improving air quality in the municipality, which is located within the Po Valley – a natural basin that traps pollutants.
Another key project has been modernising Treviso's wastewater infrastructure, with only 27% of the city's population connected to the ageing system at the start. "We're already at 64% and [by year 10] we would like to finish at 80%," says Manera. "It's really a green revolution because all that organic wastewater was going in our rivers."
For a city surrounded by water, the transformation is vital. Often dubbed "little Venice" by locals, Treviso's waterways cut right through the city's 2,100-year-old centre, passing flower-filled balconies and drooping weeping willow trees along the water banks.
"This is a city where the canals are the protagonists," says Ilaria Barbon, a tour guide at Treviso Tours. "The presence of the Sile River was essential for the origins and the development of Treviso. The same canals and the massive walls protected Treviso at the beginning of the 16th Century."
She adds that water remains central to Treviso's identity. "Today the quality of the water is very good. We have a lot of fountains, some of them are famous, like Dei Tre Visi or the Delle Tette. Free Aqua is an app [to] track them to fill your [water] bottle. I live 6km from Treviso, and the local administration is giving aluminium bottles to every kid at school – 'plastic zero' is the goal."
AlamyThat same water has long powered Treviso's industry too. Ancient water mills used for grain in the 16th Century are dotted across the city. Today, they have been brought back into use, with one even powering the lights at Treviso's central fish market.
"You can only produce energy [from the mill] for this place because, for the whole city, it would be impossible," says Manera. "But another big project – a €25m (£21.7m) project – is to move all the city's public lights to LED. We will complete this in another six to seven months," he says, estimating this will result in a 70% energy saving.
That same drive for more sustainable living extends beyond infrastructure. Tour guide Annalisa De Martin encourages travellers to explore Treviso on two wheels, running biking tours along the canals, river paths and surrounding countryside while weaving in the city's food scene. "I always finish my tours with a slice of tiramisù," she tells me: "It was invented here."
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According to legend, the coffee-soaked dessert was created in the 1800s by a madam who ran a local brothel. The tiramisù – which translates literally as "pick me up" – was said to be used as an aphrodisiac for her punters. Visit any one of the city's restaurants and you'll almost certainly see it on the menu.
Treviso is also renowned for its production of radicchio – a type of red chicory that is slightly bitter in taste and often paired with cheese. Tours run along Radicchio Road, a stretch of road filled with radicchio fields, with farms and producers that you can stop off and visit.
"Radicchio is used in so many ways here," says De Martin. "Not only raw, but for risottos and roasted. We also use it for pasta sauces and [to make chutney] for cheese. We have a radicchio cake called fregolotta and someone once even made a radicchio tiramisù during our annual Tiramisù World Cup."
AlamyBeyond dessert and vegetables, the region's rolling Prosecco Hills reflect the same balance between land, tradition and innovation. Winemaker Sandro Bottega, founder of Bottega Prosecco, says climate change is forcing producers to adapt.
"There are many things we are experiencing," says Bottega, "from excessive water evaporation during hot summers to increased rain and hail during colder seasons that damage the vines."
He says climate change is having a major impact on production, adding that "in some vineyards last year, we lost 80% [of our crops]. This year it will be 50%".
In response, producers like Bottega are experimenting with sustainable viticulture methods to reduce their carbon impact – like green manure techniques to promote soil fertility, solar panels for energy independence and geothermal air-conditioning as natural climate control. A sign perhaps that Treviso's green ambitions have rippled beyond its city walls.
Combined, they show how one of Italy's less-trafficked destinations is shaping a green future; one that's rooted in the simple pleasures of good food and drink, clean water and community action.
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