The Duomo was bombed flat in 1944 and carefully reconstructed after the war; it’s a rather gloomy place, chiefly distinguished as one of the few Italian cathedrals to be overwhelmed by its secular surroundings. Far more interesting is Santa Corona (daily: summer 8.30am-noon & 2.30-6pm; winter 9.30am-noon & 3-6pm), on the other side of the Corso Palladio (at the Piazza Matteotti end), a Dominican church dating from the mid-thirteenth century. Here you’ll find two of the three great church paintings in Vicenza - The Baptism of Christ , a late work by Giovanni Bellini, and The Adoration of the Magi , painted in 1573 by Paolo Veronese. The cloisters now house a run-of-the-mill Museo Naturalistico-Archeologico .

The nearby Santo Stefano (Mon-Sat 8.30-10am & 5.30-7pm) contains the third of the city’s fine church paintings: Palma Vecchio’s typically stolid and voluptuous Madonna and Child with SS George and Lucy.