Five small churches stack up a sheer rock spur in the Val di Non like a stone accordion, built one above the other across roughly nine centuries around the hermitage of San Romedio, an 11th-century noble-turned-hermit.
A covered stair of about 130 steps and several bridges link the levels, past frescoed chapels to the saint's tomb at the top, where legend says he tamed a bear that had killed his horse and rode it the rest of the way to Trento. A real bear, kept in an enclosure below the sanctuary for over a century, still recalls the story, though the practice is controversial.
