Pieve di San Giorgio di Valpolicella

The pieve stands on a terrace above Sant'Ambrogio, at the western edge of Valpolicella, in a hamlet that is little more than the church and a few houses.

It is a Romanesque parish church of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, with a small cloister attached, on a site that was in use very much earlier.

Its treasure is a carved stone ciborium dated 712 -- a Lombard-period canopy from the church that stood here before this one, and one of the most important pieces of early medieval sculpture in the Veneto.

The setting does as much as the building: the terrace looks out over the whole width of the valley.

This is a small rural parish maintaining a building and a collection of real historical importance on very limited means. The museum's admission and an offering in the church are the direct contribution.

The hamlet is tiny and the road up is narrow. Park where indicated and do not block the lanes -- people live here.

Do not touch the carved stone. The ciborium fragments are thirteen hundred years old.

Combining the visit with a purchase from a Classico producer in the valleys below supports the terraced vineyards that make the view what it is.

The church is free to enter and generally open during the day, though as a rural parish its hours are not guaranteed.

The museum in the cloister, which holds the ciborium fragments and other early material, has limited hours -- typically weekend afternoons and by arrangement -- and charges a small admission.

The hamlet of San Giorgio is reached by a narrow road up from Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella, about ten minutes by car. There is limited parking and no useful public transport.

Allow forty-five minutes to an hour with the museum, less without.

The church and cloister are on uneven historic paving with some steps; the terrace and the view are reachable without difficulty.