Visit the Abbey of San Galgano
Chiusdino countryside, Italy
San Galgano’s roofless abbey creates an unusually direct encounter between architecture and landscape. The surviving walls and columns preserve the scale of the Cistercian church, while grass and open sky transform the interior’s atmosphere. Walk slowly through the nave and around the remaining monastic spaces, noticing how light changes the stone. The nearby Montesiepi hermitage adds historical context, but the abbey itself rewards attention without needing to turn the visit into a search for legends.