At the foot of the Euganean Hills we cross the massive walls of Este, the ancient Ateste, chosen by the enthusiasts of Paleoveneto to found a new and flourishing civilization which, thanks to trade with the Greeks, the Romans and the various nearby populations, had an increasing ascent.

Later the Este family, who took the name from the city, erected the first fortification in 1056, rebuilt later by Umberto da Carrara in 1340 and finally extended by the Venetians in the fifteenth century.

Crossing the mighty walls, which defend this corner of paradise, we find ourselves among the inevitable and characteristic porticoed streets, ancient churches and palaces, including the sixteenth century Palazzo Mocenigo, where inside is the Atestino National Museum with its exceptional pre-Roman and Roman archaeological collection of Este and its territory and the most representative archaeological materials of the culture of the ancient Venetians, who lived in this region in the 1st millennium BC.

Worth seeing is the Carrarese Castle, even if little of the ancient original structure remains after the passage of Ezzelino III da Romano. Despite this, it’s still the main attraction of the town.

It was rebuilt in its imposing current forms by Ubertino da Carrara, lord of Padua, in 1339, thus giving it a fundamental role for the defense of the domains of the era of the Carraresi. In 1887 the municipality of Este purchased the entire complex, thus allocating the internal green spaces of the walls to public gardens.

The Church of Santa Tecla, built starting from 1690 on the remains of an ancient church destroyed by a terrible earthquake, is located in the square of the same name and preserves inside, in the main altar, the altarpiece by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and, in the Chapel of the Holiest Sacrament on the right of the presbytery, there’s the "Triumph of the Eucharist” Baroque masterpiece by Antonio Corradini. Villa Albrizzi was restored in the nineteenth century and is remembered because in the summer of 1961, Bruce Chatwin stayed here, among the most famous names of the twentieth century travel literature.