Piazza dei Signori

The civic heart of Treviso, ringed by porticoed buildings and dominated by the brick mass of the Palazzo dei Trecento, the 13th-century town hall where the Council of Three Hundred met. The piazza is small by Italian standards — more living room than parade ground — and the cafes spill out under the arcades all year.

At dusk the entire centre seems to converge here for the aperitivo hour. Markets, processions, and Christmas stalls all use the square in turn. The Torre Civica clock tower at the corner is part of the same complex.

things to do sight
A story
The Palazzo dei Trecento was bombed almost flat on Good Friday 1944, when an American daylight raid on the Treviso rail yards drifted west and killed more than 1,500 civilians in seven minutes. The brick palace was painstakingly rebuilt — look for the dark line on the facade marking the bomb-damaged stone below from the surviving brick above.