Of the seven sites I have so far been to three: two in Umbria (visited April 2015), and one in Friuli-Venezia Guilia (July 2015).

The Clitunno Tempietto wasn’t easy to find, but I had been prepared for that and we soon located it. For a while we were the only people there, which was nice. I love it when I go to a World Heritage Site and there is nobody else around. You can see the Roman-style architecture of this temple – it looks nothing like a church, yet it was built for Christian worship in the Dark Ages.

Remnants from this period of history are not generally well-preserved; it is underrepresented on the UNESCO list, so you can really pick up something novel from visiting the Longobard sites.

The basilica of San Salvatore is just a short drive away, in the Umbrian town of Spoleto. It is a much larger building, and totally empty inside. I liked the basilica’s Byzantine depiction of Christ the Teacher.

The Gastaldaga area and the Episcopal complex in northeast Italy is in the charming town of Cividale del Friuli. We arrived there after seeing Škocjan Caves and Idrija mercury mine in Slovenia. The carved figures in the temple were inspired by the Porch of the Caryatids in the Erechtheion on Athens’ Acropolis.