Besides commemorating the Apostle, in whose honour the parish church is dedicated, the place name of San Pietro in ‘Cariano’ appears to derive from the late Latin word Carilianus (land belonging to Carilius), whence the name of the contrada near the chief town of the municipality, albeit certain scholars interpret the appellative as being a simplified form of “Castrum-Rotharii-Ruptum” abbreviated “Ca-R-i-R-um” and then Italianized to indicate the name of the castle in ‘Castelrotto’.
San Pietro in Cariano was not a place of any great importance in the Middle Ages, once Verona had come under Venetian rule, nor even during the earlier Scaligero period, although it was the See of the Vicariate of Valpolicella from 1452 to 1805 (the fall of the Venetian Republic and the imposition of French and Austrian rule thereafter).
A rich tradition of art and culture is reflected in the numerous villas that enhance the municipality, the wonderful Romanesque rural church of San Floriano, and the church of San Martino and San Rocco.
