The origin of the Abbey dates back to the VI-VII centuries, when a Benedictine settlement was built on what was the Insula Pomposia, a wooded island surrounded by two branches of the river and protected by the sea. After the year 1000 the season of greatest splendour began and it became a flourishing monastic centre devoted to a life of prayer and work, whose fortune was linked to the figure of the abbot San Guido. The pompous monastery welcomed illustrious personalities of the time, among whom we must remember Guido d’Arezzo, the monk who invented the musical writing based on the seven notes system. For art lovers it is an opportunity to admire in the Basilica of Santa Maria one of the most precious fresco cycles in the whole province of Giotto’s inspiration and the beautiful mosaic floor with inlays of precious marble dating back to the 6th and 12th centuries.