It’s a truism in travel writing that the best places are the hardest to get to. But on a recent visit to Tuscia, in northern Lazio where it nuzzles up against Tuscany and Umbria, I realized that sometimes the best places are the ones everyone skips over in their rush to get to the famous ones.

To be clear, Tuscia is not part of Tuscany, despite their confusingly (to North American ears) similar names. But it shares a lot of features with that far more famous—and touristed—region: rolling landscapes, farmhouse hotels, historic homes, wine production and excellent food. Antonello Mancini Caterini, the current owner of Castello di Santa Cristina, actually describes his region to would-be visitors as “southern Tuscany. “It’s a similar vibe,” he says, “but with fewer people.” And you can see Tuscany.

Caterini’s Napoleonic castle is lovely, with beautiful grounds and collections of artifacts—his great-grandfather was a horseman and part of the Pope’s national guard back in the days that the Catholic church had its seat in the regional capital of Viterbo rather than the Vatican. Horseback riding still runs in the family, and it’s one of the main activities that guests pursue.

Staying there, I was struck by the difference between staying on the grounds (in a cozy caretaker’s cottage) of an actual castle, one that is still occupied by the aristocratic family that has lived in it since the 18th century, and one that has been transformed into a luxury hotel by Rosewood or COMO (nothing wrong with those!). This one is in fact classified as an agriturismo, those uniquely lovely Italian farmhouse accommodations that are low on frills but high on charm. “It’s rustic and original. We had the idea of preserving the spirit of the place,” says Caterini. “It’s not a five-star hotel but a place with a soul, and that soul needs to be preserved.”

When he converted the castle to a tourism product—it was no longer supporting itself as a potato farm—back in 1997, such a thing was unheard-of. But Caterini saw that it would provide the income for restorations and offer him a chance to share his heritage—and occasionally his irreverent sense of decorative humor—with the world.

Now he is one of several owners of historic palaces and castles who are now welcoming visitors. It’s an informal network, but one of the main players is Francesco Cozza Caposavi Vesmile, the owner of Vesconte in Bolsena, which he has doubled in size since my first visit, still with the same eye to design and detail. His bet on saving his family’s residence through tourism had clearly paid off.

He also set out to create an alliance of like-minded home owners. tourism professionals and local politicians throughout Tuscia to voluntarily promote the destination—what he says is a “real authentic offer, with places rich in history and the passion of individuals who have made them reborn.” He continues, “This union of intentions has allowed the development of a sensitive and true experiential tourism, shortening the distances between one place and another. [It’s a] slow tourism, made up of unique stages that come together in a single historical-cultural path.”

Because this is Italy, the region is dense and alive, richly layered with that living history, not to mention palaces and castles. Take the village of Sutri, for instance, one of the most significant Etruscan cities—it dates from the year 728—and once an important center for the Church. It’s the kind of place that has restaurants like La Sfera d’Oro, a trattoria known for excellent duck and the kind of place that has no menus in English, because international tourism hasn’t arrived.

Sutri is important now because its mayor is Vittorio Sgarbi, an influential Italian art critic and historian, cultural commentator and politician. He set out to use art to put the place on the international cultural map, making moves like naming Andrea Bocelli an honorary citizen and creating a stunning museum in the village’s Palazzo Doebbing, a disused former bishop’s palace. The latest exhibition was surprisingly provocative, starting with the gorgeous, oversize photo of two women embracing behind the ticket counter.

One of the artists in that exhibition is Giovanni di Carpegna Falconieri, a Roman nobleman who also bought back a palace in nearby Vetralla that had belonged to his family centuries ago. He restored his sometime studio in Palazzo Franciosoni and decided to open it to the public with visits to its rich rooms of works by the masters of the Italian Renaissance, alongside his contemporary works.

When he was restoring the frescoes, he discovered some curiosities, including one that depicts a bear and an elephant even though those animals were not present in 16th-century Italy (but present in stories of the world) and another that shows and androgynous person and a self-pleasuring satyr, which surely would have been covered in more religious times. It’s worth visiting to hear his commentary on those.

Also happening when the region was the headquarters of the Catholic church: The Popes had their preferred thermal baths, among the 40 or so in the region. Still in operation today and now known as Terme dei Papa, the baths, particularly the large outdoor pool, still have a grandeur that’s steeped in history (and of course far fewer people than their famous Tuscan counterparts). Their source was mentioned by Dante Alighieri in the Divine Comedy and cited by Michelangelo in his sonnets. Inside the facility, there are thermal water and mud treatment rooms and a steamy grotto. The place accepts those wonderfully Italian doctors’ prescriptions for weeks-long thermal cures, but it’s also a splendid spot to spend a lazy afternoon.

My tour also led, as nearly all tours of Italy do, to outstanding restaurants. In Bolsena, Ristocantina Gio occupies an old medieval cellar, which was largely excavated more than 2,000 years ago by the Etruscans. Young local chef Giorgio Bufalari has recently returned from Michelin-star kitchens around the world to transform it into a gourmet destination.

More contemporary in style, the restaurant at Il Caminetto serves excellent pasta in a prime location beside Lake Bolsena (the largest volcanic lake in Europe). Vesmile, who also served as my guide around the region, pointed out that the place feels like it could be in Capri. But unlike on that popular island, we rolled up for a Sunday lunch and were seated immediately, despite having no reservation.

It was a similar story at the historic homes we visited that afternoon, particularly Villa Farnese in Caprarola, a grand pentagonal mansion that “some say is the best house in the center of Italy,” according to my informal guide, Natalia Pignatelli di Montecalvo, an art historian and wife of the late Prince of San Severo Guido d’Aquino di Caramanico. It’s a gorgeous place to visit, having been started in 1504 by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, who would become Pope Paul III. The family was said to be in such a heated competition with another aristocratic family that they looked the artisans inside until they finished every sumptuous Renaissance detail. The staircase, which was designed in a way that allows horses to climb it, is studied in art history classes.

“If this were in Rome,” says Montecalvo, “there would be a two-hour line to see it.” Here, and at the nearby formal gardens of Villa Lante in Bagnaia, there was hardly anyone, save for a smattering of locals enjoying a Sunday afternoon in the sun.

Montecalvo and her son, Filippo d’Aquino di Caramanico, renovated their own family’s country home—once a garrison of the Knights of Malta—and turned it into a stylish, intimate vacation home. The three bedrooms and living spaces of their Commenda dei Cavalieri dell’Ordine di Malta are full of family heirlooms, antique books and, as Caramanico casually points out, a rug that once belonged to the Pope. Their property also has a the oldest chapel in Tuscia, built in 1212, when the place was a monastery.

Speaking (loosely) of religious traditions, Tuscia is also home to one of the most incredible festivals in Italy. September 4 is the day of the patron saint of Viterbo, a city that happens to have one of the biggest and best preserved medieval centers in the world. It’s celebrated with a procession the night before.

Santa Rosa is commemorated with a 98-foot-high statue—taller than any building in the old town—that is called a machine, festooned with some 800 flaming candles and carried on the shoulders of 100 men from one end of the medieval center to the other, a route that’s almost a mile long. The machine is replaced every few years and redesigned by a prominent architect, in this case Raffaele Ascenzi.

Residents line the streets to take in the Macchina di Santa Rosa, while journalists and guests invited by the municipality gather at a party to watch it from the second-floor windows of the local government offices, which are housed in—you guessed it—another historic palace.