Chiesa di Santa Maria della Pomposa is a small historic church on one of Modena's quieter squares, away from the immediate pull of the cathedral and Piazza Grande. Its scale is modest, but that is exactly why it works: it gives you a pause in the older city rather than another headline monument.
Stop in if you are wandering north of the main centre or tracing Modena beyond its famous Romanesque core. The church and its little piazzetta show the softer, neighbourhood side of the city, where brick, porticoes and small religious buildings matter as much as the UNESCO-listed ensemble.