Skip to content

Colico

Piona Abbey

An abbey on the Olgiasca peninsula near Colico, with a thirteenth-century cloister and a community of Cistercian monks.

Visit duration
45 min – 1 h 30
Booking
Not required
Area
Upper Lake
The Romanesque cloister at Piona abbey, its paired colonnettes around an inner lawn.Andreas Lattmann · CC0
  • Pymouss · CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Fabio Poggi · CC BY 3.0

1 / 3

The Romanesque cloister at Piona abbey, its paired colonnettes around an inner lawn.

Andreas Lattmann · CC0

Why go

Piona Abbey began as a Cluniac priory on the Olgiasca peninsula, which encloses a small inner lagoon.

Its origins go back to the oratory built by Bishop Agrippinus in the seventh century. The church of San Nicola was consecrated in 1138, and the Romanesque-Gothic cloister, whose capitals are all different, was built between 1252 and 1257. Since 1938 it has been home to Cistercian monks from Casamari, who make herbal liqueurs.

  • The cloister of 1252, with no two capitals alike.
  • The monastery overlooking the lake and woodland paths on the Olgiasca peninsula.

Highlights

  • The church of San Nicola
  • The Piona lagoon

Getting there

  • By car from Colico, 10 minutes; on foot from Piona station via Olgiasca and the paths across the peninsula.
  • By boat on seasonal sailings.
  • On foot from Colico by the Strada Vegia, an old route of 1755: an easy seven-kilometre, three-hour loop, March to November, starts from the car park at Garavina on the road to Dorio. CAI path 7 climbs through the woods above the Laghetto di Piona to Crottino and Olgiasca; then the upper path passes a bird-catching roccolo, the Sass Negher with its climbing routes and the replica of the Lourdes grotto, and you return to Olgiasca by the cobbled CAI 7/A. Or come by boat and walk back.
Inside the church of San Nicola: the stone walls, the frescoed apse with a row of saints, the hanging crucifix, the altar and the wooden choir stalls.Torsade de Pointes · CC0

Accessibility

  • There are four steps at the abbey entrance, which a ramp with a 13 per cent gradient bypasses; then two steps into the church, which is free of obstacles inside, and more steps to the cloister and the chapter house.
  • The adapted toilet is in the men's toilets, about fifty metres from the gate.

Practical information

Address

Via Abbazia di Piona 55, 23823 Colico

Telephone

+39 0341 940331

Facilities

  • Car park 132 m away · free
  • Public toilets 53 m away · accessible

Distances from the point on the map.

Updated 22 October 2026

On the map

Explore the lake
ColicoDorioPiona Abbey

© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL

What's on nearby

Events within a few kilometres, on now or coming up.

See all

Nearby: places, experiences, services

Distances as the crow flies.

Sources and credits

Verified at source1 Oct – 8 Oct 2026Abbazia di Pionaopens in a new tab

Sources and credits

Verified at source1 Oct – 8 Oct 2026Abbazia di Pionaopens in a new tab