According to popular devotion, the climb up to Monte Berico and the sanctuary at the top must be made on foot, under the Porticoes, reciting the decades of the rosary all the way.
It was for the convenience of the pilgrims that the present Porticoes were built, in the second half of the eighteenth century, to a design by F. Muttoni, from Piazzale Santa Libera up to Monte Berico. The construction covers a length of 700 metres and is composed of 150 arcades; every 10 arcades there is a brief terrace in the form of a chapel.
At the corner of the Cross, where the line of porticoes changes direction, there is a splendid view of the town: in the background are the Lessini Mountains, Mount Grappa and the Montello. Once we reach the esplanade, the Basilica of Monte Berico stands before us, a monumental group of buildings (1688-1703) to a design by C. Borella, incorporating the votive church in the Gothic style which the people of Vicenza erected, in 1428, on the site where the Virgin appeared to Vincenza Pasini during a terrible plague. Three identical Baroque façades are repeated on three sides, adorned with 42 statues by O. Marinali; on the fourth side is the façade of the little Gothic church renovated by G. Miglioranza (1860-61). The bell-tower (1825) by A. Piovene is unmistakable, being with the basilica one of the most significant views associated with the town. The interior of the church, in the form of a Greek cross inscribed in a square with sides 15 metres long, has at the same time a scenic and a noble effect. The richly decorated altar of the Madonna houses the highly revered statue of the Madonna of Monte Berico, in painted marble, attributed to Antonino da Venezia. Stones donated to Mary by the faithful were used by Vicenza goldsmiths to create the rich necklace and the gold crown weighing over 3 kilos. On the altar to the right of the high altar is the Pietà (1500), a masterpiece by B. Montagna. The door between the choir and the altar leads down into the ante- refectory from the balconies of which a marvellous view may be enjoyed. On the right is the busy outline of the hills, the green amphitheatre of the nearby plain, while on the left, standing on a low mound in all its regal glory, is Palladio's Rotonda. In the old refectory of the convent is the grandiose "Supper of St. Gregory the Great", a magnificent work by Paolo Veronese who painted it in 1572, perhaps the finest of all his Supper paintings. It was torn into 32 pieces by Austrian bayonets on 10 June 1848 and restored by order of the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph.

From the Basilica we step out onto the vast Piazzale della Vittoria (1920-21), by the architect Dondi dell'Orologio, a stupendous viewpoint overlooking the town.
On the balustrade, marble arrows indicate the names of the most famous peaks associated with episodes in the First World War which can be seen on the horizon, and the names of the most important places in the plain. A charming and romantic walk, some 500 metres long, will take us to Villa Guiccioli, previously known as Ambellicopoli (second half of the 18th century, architect G.A. Selva), stronghold of the heroic resistance of the people of Vicenza against the Austrian troops on 10 June 1848. It is now the home of the Museum of the Risorgimento and the Resistance and its many rooms hold a vast amount of documentary material (prints, posters, paintings, weapons, flags and various objects) related with the history of Vicenza during the Risorgimento and numerous reminders of the First World War and the Resistance. Its attractive park has various species of plants of considerable scientific interest.

Anyone who feels like walking can easily reach on foot, just under Monte Berico, the villas Valmarana ai Nani and the Rotonda by Palladio by turning off at the Cross onto Viale M. D'Azeglio and continuing along the attractive Stradella S. Bastian; alternatively they may be reached from the town centre with A.I.M. bus lines 8 and 13. After the Triumphal Arch in Piazzale Fraccon (1595, designed by A. Palladio), beyond which rise the "Scalette", a series of 192 steps leading to Monte Berico, we come to the old Borgo Berga, another river port of the town where the boats used to moor that came up the river Bacchiglione from Venice to unload their cargoes. As reminders of those days we can still see the old Customs house and the Salt Warehouses and their quay right in front of the opening of Via G.B. Tiepolo; a little farther on is the little Church of Santa Caterina al Porto (14th century). Via G.B. Tiepolo takes us to Villa Valmarana ai Nani, whose name is linked with a poetic legend and with the little statues that stand on the garden walls. It is made up of the main house (1699) attributed to A. Muttoni and of the entrance, the guests' quarters and stables by F. Muttoni. In the main building and the guests' quarters there is a fantastic series of frescoes by Giambattista and Giandomenico Tiepolo, almost a personal exhibition giving a precise idea of their painting and of a noble residence in the eighteenth century; for a detailed description see the itinerary "The Tiepolos and the 18th century". After our visit to the villa we return to the little square at the entrance where we can see the fine portal of the nineteenth-century Villa Franco.

A sequence of walls and trees, continuously alternating stone and greenery, takes us along the attractive Stradella Valmarana to the Rotonda (1550), the most famous of Palladio's villas: a highly personal interpretation of a home created with distinctly Veneto sensitivity, in spite of which it has been greatly admired and copied all over Europe and America. The exterior of the villa presents four perfectly identical façades with pronaoi; from the top of the steps we can admire stupendous views of the hills and the plain, to the extent that one critic wrote that Palladio planned the hill first and then the Rotonda. Inside there is a vast round hall with stucco decorations by Rubini and frescoes by Maganza and L. Dorigny; in the walls are the doors towards the outside staircases and, in the four arms, other doors leading to four identical suites of rooms.
Two churches with a thousand years of history behind them are the last lap of this itinerary around Vicenza, both of which may be reached by means of the A.I.M. bus line 4. The first is the very old Church of San Giorgio in Gogna (982) deep in the greenery on the slopes of Monte Berico; the old lazzaret or fever hospital was here and executions were held under Austrian rule. In the simple single-naved interior, of Franciscan poverty and for this very reason highly moving, there is only one painting, "The Apparitions of the Virgin to Vincenza Pasini" (about 1620) by Maganza. The large centre-supported canvas perfectly suits the church in the episodes it narrates, the raging of the plague and the apparitions on Monte Berico, and in the scene it shows: the view of seventeenth-century Vicenza seen from the very place where San Giorgio stands. As Prof. F. Barbieri has explained, it is a priceless document illustrating history and costume.

The origins of the Abbey of Sant'Agostino, which stands by the Retrone, not far from the Vicenza West exit of the motorway, go back to the Longobard period (about the seventh century). The church, which was restored between 1941 and 1942 by the parish priest Father F. Mistrorigo, has a cottage façade of tufa and bricks, with an arched portal.
The interior is composed of a broad nave decorated with fourteenth-century frescoes of the Veneto and Emilian schools. On the high altar is the "Golden Altar-piece" 91404), a polyptych by Battista da Vicenza, ordered by Ludovico Chiericati to commemorate the spontaneous Surrender of Vicenza to the Serene Republic of Venice, a decision made in that year. The church is famous as having been the home church of San Lorenzo Giustiniani and of Gabriele Condulmer, who became Pope with the name of Eugene IV.