The Abbey of Santa Scolastica is the oldest Benedictine monastery in continuous operation in the world — founded in the sixth century and still home to a community of monks today. Named after Benedict's twin sister, it has been rebuilt and expanded many times, and its three cloisters span Romanesque, Gothic, and Renaissance styles in succession, each one a small masterpiece.
The monastery holds another distinction: in 1464, two German printers brought the first printing press in Italy here and produced the first books printed on Italian soil — editions of Cicero and Lactantius. The library preserves some of those earliest printed volumes.
The church itself is a Neoclassical rebuilding of the eighteenth century, less remarkable than the cloisters, but the bell tower dates from the eleventh century and is visible from the road. Guided tours (in Italian) run several times daily; the monks lead them with evident pride. story: "In 1464, the German printers Conrad Sweynheym and Arnold Pannartz set up a press in the monastery — the first in Italy. Their earliest productions were editions of Cicero and Lactantius. Within a decade, Rome alone had more printing presses than any city in Europe."