Anagni, the frescoed crypt that rivals a "Sistine Chapel"

There is an Italy of frescoes that you don't have to photograph awkwardly, elbow to elbow. While in Naples you book weeks in advance for a few minutes before the Veiled Christ of the Sansevero Chapel, in Anagni, on the hills of Ciociaria, you step into one of the most surprising churches in Lazio often with no one else around. The town, an ancient papal seat, still holds the informal title of "city of the popes", yet its wonders remain off the mass-tourism routes.

At the heart of it all is the Cathedral of Santa Maria, an imposing Romanesque building that dominates the town from above. Inside, Cosmatesque floors with geometric inlays sit alongside a finely carved paschal candlestick and a solemnity of stone that commands silence. But it is by descending beneath the altar that you understand why the trip is worth it: the crypt of San Magno, vast and with several aisles, is entirely covered in medieval frescoes. The vaults recount sacred stories, science and cosmology in a sequence so rich that it is called, not by chance, the "Sistine Chapel of the Middle Ages".

The beauty lies in the rhythm at which you experience it. No fixed routes, no crowds pushing: you linger over the colours that have survived the centuries, you sit down, you go back to check a detail. Anagni offers the ever rarer experience of truly standing before art, rather than queuing to see it.

To make the most of it, avoid the spring long weekends and summer holidays. Choose a weekday morning in the shoulder season, pair it with a walk through the medieval old town and a leisurely lunch in a local trattoria. Anagni is easily reached from Rome in a little over an hour, and yet it remains a world apart: proof that the most beautiful things, sometimes, are simply the ones no one has told you about yet.

Related guides: Where to go in January in Italy: art cities and villages off-season.

Getting there

The cathedral with its frescoed crypt stands in the old town of Anagni, in Ciociaria. By car you arrive via the A1 motorway, Anagni-Fiuggi exit, then continue towards the town centre; from Rome the journey takes about an hour. By train you get off at Anagni-Fiuggi station, on the Rome-Cassino line, which is a few kilometres from the old town, connected by local buses or taxi.