Campobasso, Italy

CAMPOBASSO, Molise's regional capital, is a modern town that makes a good base for the remarkable ruins at Saepinum. If you happen to be around 60 days after Easter, don't miss the town's spectacular Corpus Domini Sagra dei Misteriprocession, in which citizens are dressed as saints, angels and devils, inserted into fantastic contraptions and transported, seemingly suspended in mid-air, through the streets.

At any other time of the year the most notable attraction is the Samnite Museum (daily 8.30am–1.30pm & 2–5.30pm; free) at Via Chiarizia 14, with statues and a scattering of archeological finds from the area, most notably the haunting contents of a Longobard tomb, a warrior buried alongside his horse. Steep alleys of the small, old upper town lead up to a couple of Romanesque churches – San Bartolomeo, which has eerily contorted figures carved around its main door, and San Giorgio, whose entrance displays a dragon surrounded by stylized flowers. At the top of the hill are a monastery and sixteenth-century castle. Call ahead or drop in at the city hall for a visit to the castle from which there is panorama over the environs and the historical centre's borgo antico below (Piazza Vittorio Emanuele 29; Tel:08744.051).