A Unesco serial site not many are familiar with, the nine Sacri Monti (Sacred Mountains) of Italy are groups of chapels created in the late 16th and 17th centuries dedicated to different aspects of the Christian faith. They are located in northern Italy, in the regions of Piedmont and Lombardy.

“In addition to their symbolic spiritual meaning, they are of great beauty by virtue of the skill with which they have been integrated into the surrounding natural landscape of hills, forests and lakes”, writes Unesco, which inscribed them into the World Heritage list in 2003.