Subiaco

As a young hermit, Saint Benedict spent three years in a cave above the Aniene, and the Sacro Speco monastery now clings to the cliff around it, layered with frescoes. Further down, Santa Scolastica is the only survivor of the monasteries he founded here, and in the 1460s German printers produced the first books printed in Italy inside the abbey. The town's name recalls the lakes of Nero's villa.

Highlights

• The Sacro Speco, with a portrait of St Francis painted in his lifetime
• Santa Scolastica and its three cloisters, from Cosmatesque to late Renaissance (IT)
• The Rocca Abbaziale, with 16th-century frescoes in the Colonna apartment
• Ponte di San Francesco, a medieval humpback bridge with a tower over the Aniene
• Beech forests of the Monti Simbruini park and skiing at Monte Livata

Summary based on Wikipedia and Wikivoyage (CC BY-SA), written with AI assistance.