Asiago is the name of both a minor township (population roughly 6,500) and the surrounding plateau region (the Altopiano di Asiago or Altopiano dei Sette Comuni, Asiago plateau) in the Province of Vicenza

Province of Vicenza

The Province of Vicenza is a province in the Veneto region of northern Italy. Its capital city is Vicenza.The province has an area of 2,723 km², and a total population of 840,000 . There are 121 comuni in the province...

 in the Veneto

Veneto

Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...

 region of Northeastern Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. It is near the border between the Veneto

Veneto

Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...

 and Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol regions in the foothills of the Alps

Alps

The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....

, and about equidistant (100 km) from the major cities of Trento

Trento

Trento is an Italian city located in the Adige River valley in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. It is the capital of Trentino...

 to the west and Vicenza

Vicenza

Vicenza , a city in north-eastern Italy, is the capital of the eponymous province in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, straddling the Bacchiglione...

 to the south.

Although probably best known internationally as the origin of Asiago cheese

Asiago cheese

Asiago is an Italian cow's milk cheese that can assume different textures, according to its aging, from smooth for the fresh Asiago to a crumbly texture for the aged cheese of which the flavor is reminiscent of Parmesan...

, Asiago was also the site of a major battle

Battle of Asiago

The Battle of Asiago ' or the Trentino Offensive , nicknamed Strafexpedition by the Austrians, was a counteroffensive launched by the Austro-Hungarians on the Italian Front on 15 May 1916, during World War I...

 between Austrian and Italian forces on the Alpine Front of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. It is a major ski resort destination as well as the site of the Astrophysical Observatory of Asiago, operated by the University of Padua

University of Padua

The University of Padua is a premier Italian university located in the city of Padua, Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 as a school of law and was one of the most prominent universities in early modern Europe. It is among the earliest universities of the world and the second...

.

Culture

Until the middle of the nineteenth century many of the people of Asiago spoke Cimbrian

Cimbrian language

Cimbrian refers to any of several local Upper German varieties spoken in northeastern Italy. The speakers of the language are known as Zimbern....

, an ancient German dialect

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

.

Asiago is the birthplace of author Mario Rigoni Stern

Mario Rigoni Stern

Mario Rigoni Stern was an Italian author and World War II veteran.His first novel Il sergente nella neve, published in 1953 , draws on his own experience as a Sergeant Major in the Alpini corp during the disastrous retreat from Russia in World War II...

, and features prominently in his stories. It is also described in Emilio Lussu

Emilio Lussu

Emilio Lussu was an Italian soldier, politician and a writer.-The soldier:Lussu was born in Armungia, province of Cagliari and graduated with a degree in law in 1914...

's A Year on the Altopiano.

Sport

The city is home to Asiago Hockey AS, a professional ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 team currently playing in the country's top division, Serie A1.

• Aldo Stella (b. 1943), ski mountaineer and cross-country skier, calls Asiago his hometown.

External links

• Official site (Italian)
• Asiago plateau (Italian)
• General information (English)
• Battle of Asiago (English)
• Astrophysical Observatory of Asiago (English)