Image - Este Castle
"Castruccio passed through Bologna, Ferrera and Rovigo, to arrive at Este. It was not the most favorable period for a visit to Lombardy. The beauty of that country consists in its exquisite vegetation: its fields of waving corn, planted with rows of trees to which vines are festooned, form prospects, every varying in their combinations, that delight and refresh the eye; but autumn had nearly stript the landscape, and the low lands were overflowed by the inundation of various rivers. Castruccio's mind, fixed on the imagination of future events, found no amusement in the wintry scene; but he saw with delight the mountains that were the bourn of his journey, become more and more distinct. Este is situated nearly at the foot of the Euganean hills, on a declivity overlooked by an extensive and picturesque castle, beyond which is a convent; the hills rise from behind, from whose heights you discover the vast plain of Lombardy, bounded to the west by the far Apennines of Bologna, and to the east by the sea and the towers of Venice." (Valperga 77)
From Britannica.com entry on Este:
"After 1288 it passed through numerous hands before becoming Venetian in 1405. Notable landmarks are the ruins of the old castle (founded c. 1056, rebuilt 1339), the cathedral (1690–1720)."