Off A2, 120 km south east of Rome. The unremarkable town lies under Monte Cassino (460 m), site of the 6thC monastery whose Benedictine friars carried Christianity throughout pagan Europe. The building, twice destroyed (earthquake 1349, a three-month battle 1944) and twice rebuilt is a place of solemn pilgrimage and meditation, not a tourist attraction. It has a valuable collection of illuminated manuscripts. The panoramas are breathtaking.

Military cemeteries on Monte Cassino’s slopes contain the dead, predominantly Polish troops, who battled for the strongpoint at lethal cost in Second World War.