Every design for Rossano

In the old town's narrow streets, Porta Giudecca and Porta dell'Aqua still mark the way in, much as they did when Rossano was one of Byzantium's strongholds in Italy. Today the hill town above the Gulf of Taranto is part of Corigliano-Rossano, with olive groves and citrus orchards on the plain below and the Sila rising behind.

What makes it different is how Byzantine it remains. It kept the Greek rite long after the Normans arrived, gave the world Pope John VII and Nilus the Younger, and has been called one of the most Byzantine cities in Europe. Its treasure, the Rossano Gospels, a sixth-century illuminated manuscript, is kept in the Museo Diocesano e del Codex, near palazzi such as Palazzo Amarelli.

If Rossano is where you come from, this is your town on its hill — the gates, the cathedral, the sea in the distance — ready to go wherever you do.