The cool, calm retreat less than an hour from Venice without high prices and crowds

Green hills rise up around me like a choppy sea as the tuneful twittering of blackbirds and European serins ebbs through the air. This place is only a 40-minute drive from Venice, with its day-tripper tax and madding crowds. Yet, save for a farmer trundling around in a compact tractor, there’s not a soul in sight.

Le Colline del Conegliano e Valdobbiadene – or the Prosecco Hills, as it’s also known – is a 22,000-acre swath of neatly pleated, steeply-slanted vineyards, woodland and Italian villages that’s protected by Unesco for its unique topography.

The absence of crowds is misleading; there’s plenty to see and do. Cyclists can bike along the Prosecco Wine Road that sashays through 50km of the region, while walkers can ramble up and down the acutely angled “hogback” hills.

My trip begins with a tasting. Sparkling wine has been produced in Prosecco since the 19th century, and today more than 1,100 wineries operate in the region. A tour of the Bellenda vineyard includes a sampling of six wines. I taste flavours like apple, pear, rosemary and hazelnut as the bubbles effervesce.

Thanks to the 3D maps, vine diagrams and climate data on display, it’s easy to become engrossed in the world of wine at Bellenda. Yet it’s not the only place in the region where you can fall down a rabbit hole. I’m staying at Alice Relais nelle Vigne – a boutique hotel themed around Alice in Wonderland.
Perched in view of yet more vines, the exterior is all nursery blue window shutters, fairy lights, and pompoms of potted flowers. Inside, it’s whimsical, with eight rooms named after characters from Lewis Carroll’s book.

Taking a brief break on my bed, I hear the chimes of the nearby Church of Saint Daniel, with its sky-skimming belltower, lilting through the window shutters.

Tall-towered churches and palaces are as much a characteristic of the Prosecco Hills as its vineyards. At the Cistercian Abbey of Santa Maria de Follina, the bell-tower has been a beacon for pilgrims since the 12th century. On a tour, my guide, Giovanna, explains the meaning behind the frescoes, the carvings of the stone pillars that surround the calm cloister, and the gravestones; one is ringed with vine leaf carvings, symbolising eternal life.

The clocktower of the Pallazo della Comunità in Serravalle is one of the area’s most striking features, with two clock faces on the same façade, one of which has 24 time markers (number 18 sits in the midnight spot). The building it’s attached to, meanwhile, is adorned with the coats of arms of 80 podestàs (governors) of the Venetian Republic, along with 12 paintings of pomegranates, representing peace.

All circuitous cobbled streets, loggia walkways and buildings with shutters, Serravalle is so unaccustomed to tourists that its museums only open on weekends (Fri-Sun, with a three-hour break for lunch) or by request. The streets are blissfully uncrowded during a walking tour that takes in the frescoed ceiling of the cathedral, and the Casa Fighera. The latter is a sombre sight, its walls pockmarked by holes from machine gun bullets fired during First World War battles.

A constant breeze whisps through Serravalle, even in the height of summer. One of the many benefits to the Prosecco Hills as a whole is the climate; the conditions that make the region ideal for glera grape growing also make it more comfortable for visitors. While lower altitude Venice is searing hot, it remains cool up here.

The microclimates of Prosecco have also contributed to its culinary identity, which I plunge headlong into at a traditional restaurant called Antica Osteria de Via Brandolini. Chicken and pork turn on spits called spiedos, as I try zucchini en saor (a Venetian dish of courgettes fried with vinegar, onions and sultanas) , radicchio e fasioi (red radicchio in a borlotti bean stew) and melanzane in tecia (slow-cooked aubergines with tomatoes).

At Salis restaurant, looking out over the steepest “cartizze” vineyards, I’m served an egg-shaped vessel of slow-cooked egg and potato espuma. And back at Alice, on the suntrap terrace, I tuck into a charcuterie board of local meats and cheeses such as casatella, a fresh and creamy soft variety.

Between mouthfuls, owner Luigi Cosmo tells me the hotel’s theme was inspired by the name of his grandmother – but it strikes me that it could just as well have been influenced by the region itself. After all, from its striped vines to its historic towns and traditional gastronomy, the Prosecco Hills are a wonderland.

How to get there

Fly from the UK to Venice Marco Polo airport. Alice Relais nelle Vigne runs pick-ups from here.

Where to stay

Alice Relais nelle Vigne has doubles from €130 (£112) a night including breakfast.