The monastery of Sant’Antimo is not exactly on the Via Francigena. But this old idiomatic expression which declares that ‘A more privileged abbey of the Roman Church and the Holy Empire does not exist in the whole of Italy’… gives us an idea of how much esteem and importance Sant’Antimo enjoyed during the Middle Ages. It therefore goes without saying that the pilgrims made a detour in order to stop at the abbey during their arduous and tiring journey.