Bodbe Monastery

Bodbe lies barely two kilometres from Sighnaghi, so the two fit naturally into one outing. The monastery was built over the grave of St Nino, the woman credited with converting Georgia to Christianity in the fourth century; tradition places her burial precisely here. The first church is attributed to King Mirian, while the three-nave basilica standing today is largely ninth-century, reworked several times, with a bell tower added in the nineteenth.

The grounds are calm and carefully kept. A cypress avenue runs from the gate to the church, a rose garden sits alongside it, and the terrace at the far end opens onto a wide view over the Alazani Valley. Inside the basilica, St Nino's tomb occupies the right-hand nave and the walls keep their nineteenth-century painting. This is a working convent, so the atmosphere is quiet and photography inside the church is restricted.

Many pilgrims continue down a footpath below the monastery to St Nino's Spring. The descent takes around twenty minutes; the climb back is noticeably harder on a hot day, since the trail is steep with little shade. At the bottom there is a small chapel and a pool where visitors may immerse themselves — if you intend to, bring your own shirt and towel, as nothing is provided.