Italy has welcomed visitors since time immemorial. But not all of Italy: some regions have remained impervious to the Grand Tourists of the past and the Instagrammers of today. Who, for example, visits Abruzzo, a region east of Rome and south of the Marche?

Very few is the answer – but why so secret? Poverty, for one thing, and the sheer wilderness of the mountains for another. The region was too high and too isolated for vines and olives, and the medieval trade and rich history that fostered the cities – and art – of Tuscany, Umbria and Sicily.