Arco delle Scalette and Monte Berico Staircase

The long staircase of the "ladders", 192 steps divided into ramps, was the main and practically the only point of access from the city to the Sanctuary of the Madonna di Monte Berico before the construction, in the mid-eighteenth century, of the arcades by Francesco Muttoni.

At the base of the staircase is the famous Arco delle Scalette, a triumphal arch with a single arch between two pairs of Corinthian semi-columns. The arch, as reported in the inscription engraved on the attic, was commissioned by the Venetian captain Giacomo Bragadin in 1595, most likely on the basis of a Palladian design developed in the years 1574-76 as part of a unitary plan formulated for the route of ascent to the hill.

The steps of Monte Berico are always beautiful and can be done in one go