Abbeys, hermitages and sanctuaries — hidden gems

The hermitage of San Romedio, in the Val di Non: five little churches climb seventy metres up a rocky spur in Trentino.

Suspended on a rocky spur in the Maiella, the hermitage linked to Pietro da Morrone remains one of the quietest and least-visited places in Abruzzo.

In Palermo's Albergheria, San Giovanni degli Eremiti combines red domes with an Arab-Norman cloister and garden, far from the crowds.

On Monte Raione, near Salerno, a cave holds one of the best-preserved early medieval religious complexes, reachable only on foot.

At the mouth of the Frasassi gorge, in the Marche, San Vittore alle Chiuse is one of the most intact Romanesque churches in Italy: worth a stop.

A little-visited UNESCO heritage site, the Sacro Monte di Belmonte offers baroque chapels, woods and a sweeping view over the Piedmontese plain.

Between two glacial lakes in Wicklow, Glendalough holds an ancient monastic site and its round tower: the silent face of Ireland.

At Voroneț, in Romanian Bukovina, the open-air frescoes of the painted monasteries have told sacred stories on their outer walls for five centuries.

In southern Georgia, Vardzia is a medieval monastery carved into the tufa, with hundreds of caves clinging to the mountainside.