Pieve di San Zeno

Lake Garda


There's old and there's...old. Hemmed in by houses and guarded by an agreeably shabby courtyard north of the main road, this tiny church, dating from the 9th century, is one of the finest pieces of Carolingian architecture to have survived in northern Italy. Its almost windowless form and moody interior give visitors a good impression of how early-Christian worship must have felt.

The original painted decoration is still visible in places and a couple of the interior columns were pillaged from earlier Roman buildings.