Italy’s Gateway to Europe: From Medieval to Modern Trento

(25 reviews)

Trento audio tour: Italy’s Gateway to Europe: From Medieval to Modern Trento

This is a 1.3mi walking tour

It takes an average of 60 mins to complete.

Trento

Italy

$6.99

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About the Tour

The city of Trento, nestled in the Alps, is a beautiful testament to the age when the Veneti, Etruscans and Gauls met the Holy Roman Empire, intertwining their cultures forever. On this walking tour, we’ll trace the history of the bishopric principality of Trento from the early 13th century, through the renaissance, and up until WWI and the completion of Italian unity. We’ll pause in remembrance of the martyrs from the city who resisted Nazi and Fascist oppression during WWII, too.

The tour starts at the Mura Vanghiane, the city’s old southern entrance. From there, you’ll make your way to the cathedral and up to the castle before heading back in time to the early 13th century, and the place where we started. Along the way, you’ll pass remains of the Roman city as well as a beautiful medieval rose garden.

This tour doesn’t only take you into the city’s past. I’ll point out the beauty of this Alpine setting and I’ll share modern Italy’s culture with you, too. Throughout the walk, you’ll be surrounded by the sounds, colours and smells of typical Trentino cuisine with a myriad of bars, restaurants and food shops to choose from. You’ll also be able to visit the shopping streets where you can find some of Italy’s world-famous fashion.

History, culture, architecture, art, fashion, food and parks converge on this tour around Trento.

Renaissance by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Artist: http://audionautix.com/

Tour Producer

A History of Italy Podcast

28 tours

A History of Italy is a weekly podcast in 15/20 minute episodes on the history of the Italian peninsula from the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the present day.

There are plenty of dates, battles and rulers of course, but also a fair share of rabbits winning sieges, swords stuck in uncomfortable places, murder mysteries, naughty popes, monks getting undressed and all other sorts of mischief in the history of the colourful Italians.

It is the author's passion for that history and the fact he lives in Italy that has lead him to explore a country that has more UNESCO world heritage sites than any other in the world and has recently added the national cuisine as well.

The author, Mike Corradi is an Anglo-Italian English teacher living in northern Italy with a passion for travel and history. He has been workinh with VoiceMap since 2019 on more than 20 tours from the most iconic sites of Venice and Rome to the lesser known corners of the two as well as many other hidden gems of the Italian provinces for those who want a more unique and off the beaten track Italian experience.

Preview Location

Location 8

Enter Piazza del Duomo

You're now in the impressive Piazza del Duomo. Find a convenient position, perhaps out of the way of pedestrian and bicycle traffic, and I'll tell you something about what you can see.

[5 SECONDS PAUSE]

To your right as you entered, is the cathedral of San Vigilio. The ... You're now in the impressive Piazza del Duomo. Find a convenient position, perhaps out of the way of pedestrian and bicycle traffic, and I'll tell you something about what you can see.

[5 SECONDS PAUSE]

To your right as you entered, is the cathedral of San Vigilio. The newer part you see on this side was commissioned by one of Trento's most well-known bishop counts Federico Vanga who assigned the task in 1212 to Adamo D'Arogno who reconstructed a previous building. Work was not then completed until over one hundred years later in 1321.

The church is particularly famous for being the location of the council of Trent which was held in three sessions between 1548 and 1563. As you already know, the council was the reaction of the Catholic Church to the spread of the Protestant reform and gave way to what was known as the counter reform. In short it was a way for the Cardinals and bishops of the Catholic Church to complain about how naughty and terrible those Protestants were and to make a list of how things should be done properly.

The building you see straight in front of you with the cathedral to your right is Bishops Palace, known as Palazzo Pretorio. It connects the cathedral to the tower you see on the left side of the square. It was the official residence of the Bishop counts of Trento until they transferred their home to the Buoconsiglio castle in 1255. It now hosts the Museo Diocesiano tridentino, the diocese museum where you can learn something about the history of these buildings, the city in general and the council of Trent. The entrance to the museum is near the tower on the left side. Note the Museum is closed on Tuesdays and holidays.

Let's now turn our attention to the tower I have mentioned a couple of times over on the left.

That is now known as the "Torre Civica" the city tower. A Version of it was first erected in the late 12 century as part of the possessions of the Bishop, but it was handed over to the "comune", the city administration of Trento at the start of the 15th century after it had been built up to its current height in the previous century. The tower was also fitted with a bell which came to be known as "RENGA", this was because it was used to call the city "ARENGO" the assembly of the people to make important decisions and to witness executions.

The area it was built on used to be the porta Vernoensis, the gate out of the city leading down to Verona in Roman times. Indeed the city of Trento was founded by the Romans in the first century with the name of Tridentum.

We'll talk a bit more about the history of the city and its strategic importance later in our tour.

Now make your way over to Neptune's fountain on the left. Read More

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Major Landmarks

Piazza di Fiera
Mura di Piazza Fiera
Il Torrione
Via Giuseppe Mazzini
Trento Cathedral
Piazza del Duomo di Trento
Torre Civica
Neptune Fountain
Piazza Lodron
Giardino pubblico S. Marco
Buonconsiglio Castle Museum
Giardini del Castello del Buonconsiglio
Torre Verde
Passaggio Silvio Dorigoni
Via del Suffragio
Torre Vanga

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Getting There

Route Overview

VoiceMap tours follow a route from a set starting point. It’s how we give turn-by-turn directions and tell a story greater than the sum of its parts.

Start location
Piazza di Fiera, 20/22, 38122 Trento TN, Italy
Total distance

2km
Final location
P.zza della Portella, 1, 38122 Trento TN, Italy
Distance back to start location

622.25m

Directions to Starting Point

It is relatively easy to get around Trento by car and almost everything is within reasonable walking distance. There is a paid parking lot near Piazza Fiera, our starting point, which is on the south side of the city, while if you wish to park free you can head to via Canestrino or lungo Adige San Nicolò just outside of the city centre.

If you are arriving at the station by train, the starting point is a 15 minute walk going through the park.

Show Directions

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Tips

Places to stop along the way

There are indications in the tour for places to stop for refreshment, but you will see that there are cafés and restaurants almost all the way along the tour. The places to stop the tour could be: Cathedral of San Vigilio, Museo Tridentino Arcivescovile, Piazza Lodron at limited opening times, The Buonconsiglio castle.

Best time of day

You can visit all year round, but it can get quite cold in the winter months, particularly January and February. Having said this the city Christmas markets are one of the great attractions in late November and December.

At a certain point of the tour we will be going through the gardens of Saint Mark which are closed between 10 pm and 7 am, so try and avoid those times. Everything else would also be closed at that time so it would not be the best idea to do the tour then.

Museo Diocesiano tridentino: Opening hours are 10.00-13.00 e 14:00–18:00, but it is closed on Tuesdays and holidays.
Tickets cost €7 with reduced prices for people over 65 and under 26 as well as university students.

The building in Piazza Lodron can be visited Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 10:00 to 12:00 and from 14:30 to 16:30.

Buonconsiglio castle:

From Tuesday 9 November to Saturday 30 April 2022: 9.30 am - 5.00 pm except every Saturday and Sunday in December and from Saturday 18 December to Sunday 9 January 2022, 9.30 am - 6.00 pm

*Special openings:

1 January 2022 from 11.00 to 17.00
public holidays: Monday 5 April, Monday 1 November, Monday 6 December, and all Mondays from 2 to 30 August

Closed on non-holiday Mondays and December 25th
N.B. Last admission to the museum is 30 minutes before closing time.

Full price tickets cost €10.00 with various discount possibilities. See site for details:

https://www.buonconsiglio.it/index.php/en/Buonconsiglio-Castle/info/opening-times-and-centres

Access to the Alpini museum in Torre Vanga is free

Openingh times:

Tuesday to Thursday 09:00-12:00 and 13:00-16:00
Friday to Sunday and holidays 09:00-12:00 / 13:00-17:00

Precautions

Trento is a safe city, but, as in most Italian cities, areas around the station may feel a little unsafe at night. Also, although there is no real danger, you may want to avoid the area around Torre Vanga at night as well.

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Italy’s Gateway to Europe: From Medieval to Modern Trento

About the Tour

Tour Producer

A History of Italy Podcast

Preview Location

Location 8

Enter Piazza del Duomo

How VoiceMap Works

Major Landmarks

Piazza di Fiera

Mura di Piazza Fiera

Il Torrione

Via Giuseppe Mazzini

Trento Cathedral

Piazza del Duomo di Trento

Torre Civica

Neptune Fountain

Piazza Lodron

Giardino pubblico S. Marco

Buonconsiglio Castle Museum

Giardini del Castello del Buonconsiglio

Torre Verde

Passaggio Silvio Dorigoni

Via del Suffragio

Torre Vanga