Via Belenzani runs north from the Piazza Duomo and is the single most photogenic street in Trento — a wide pedestrian thoroughfare lined with 16th-century palazzi whose facades carry some of the best surviving outdoor frescoes in northern Italy. The local tradition of painted house-fronts came from the desire to give a Renaissance flavour to medieval buildings without rebuilding them; the practical effect is a street that looks more Venetian than Alpine.
The most striking facades are the Palazzo Geremia (with hunting scenes and grotesques), the Palazzo Quetta-Alberti (with mythological allegories), and the long, dramatic Palazzo Thun, now the city hall. The street is best walked in late afternoon, when the low light makes the surviving paintwork glow.