The abbey of Grottaferrata is one of a kind: founded in 1004 by Saint Nilus of Rossano, it is Italy's last Italo-Greek monastery, where Basilian monks still celebrate the Byzantine rite in a church glittering with mosaics and icons, inside walls fortified by Sangallo for Pope Julius II. Its ancient-book restoration workshop has saved codices from half the world, including volumes damaged in Florence's 1966 flood.
Around the monastery lives a town of 19,156 on the Alban Hills, twenty kilometres from Rome, among Tusculan villas and vineyards. The centuries-old national spring fair is when Grottaferrata tells its story best.
Near Grottaferrata
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
