Villa Via Sacra, a large 17th-century house sits atop the medieval walls of an ancient town facing Pania della Croce, a mountain named for Jesus’s Cross above the Serchio river valley; it is a place of silence for reading and prayer, but also of conversation and thoughtful sharing. Via Sacra is but minutes from Barga’s main church or “duomo,” San Cristoforo, with its 800-year-old stone pulpit sculpted with Annunciation, Nativity, and Epiphany scenes: an Angel, a Woman, a Child, three Kings, and a Star. Reached by a short walk through Barga’s narrow, stone-paved streets, the house and its three-story tower sit astride the town’s medieval fortifications, amid terraced gardens with vistas of encircling mountains with villages on their slopes, and Barga’s own weathered terracotta roofs.

A small but vibrant resident household, composed of women and men of the Community of Jesus, supports the Mount Tabor Centre, welcoming guests in a spirit of Benedictine hospitality.