Bobbio

Columbanus, an Irish monk who had founded houses across Francia, came here in 614 and established an abbey that became one of the great libraries of early medieval Europe, its scriptorium producing and preserving manuscripts now scattered across the Vatican, Milan and Turin. He died the following year and is buried in the crypt. The Ponte Gobbo crosses the Trebbia on eleven arches of different spans and heights, giving it a broken humped profile that produced the usual devil's bargain legend. Umberto Eco is said to have drawn on Bobbio for the setting of The Name of the Rose.

What you actually see

• The abbey of San Colombano - founded by an Irish monk in 614.
• The crypt tomb - Columbanus buried beneath the church.
• The Ponte Gobbo - eleven mismatched arches over the Trebbia.
• The Trebbia valley - a river Hemingway called the most beautiful in the world.

When to go

April to October; the Trebbia is a swimming river in summer with clear pools. Winter closes some museums. The abbey museum keeps limited hours.

Honest expectations

The library manuscripts are elsewhere; the museum shows fragments and facsimiles. The valley road is winding. Summer weekends fill the river beaches.

Nearby

Piacenza lies north; the Ligurian coast is over the pass.