Imagine that you are in an art gallery in Italy. The walls and stone floors are white, and warm sunlight is filtering through large windows. You are standing before a massive work of art, a metal sculpture in the shape of a book, almost 6ft high.

There are no ropes stopping you from moving closer. There's nobody there - no noisy schoolchildren, no chattering tourists, no attendants eyeballing you from the stairwell. You step closer, so close that you can practically smell the metal. It's just you and an eye-wateringly expensive sculpture, having a face-off in a vast and empty room. This is the way to see art.

And this is the way you can see it at the Collezione Maramotti, a new gallery on the outskirts of Reggio Emilia, near Bologna. The city itself is typical of northern Italy: a warren of narrow streets lined with warm, ochre-coloured buildings, each offering a picturesque view - a glimpse of a garden archway, a wooden doorway.

The gallery affords a radical contrast. A former Max Mara clothing factory, this 1950s brick and concrete building is now home to the personal art collection of Achille Maramotti, founder of Max Mara, who died in 2005 (his children, Luigi, Ignacio and Ludovica, have fufilled his dream of opening the collection to the public). Maramotti began collecting in the late 1940s, often taking advice from his friend, the artist Claudio Parmiggiani, several of whose pieces are here.

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BACKGROUND

• Gauguin and the Pacific Isles

• Dali's spiritual home in Spain

• Dali's bohemian Barcelona

• Italy captured on canvas

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He started mostly with Italian artists, such as Piero Manzoni and Alberto Burri, then in the early 1980s began to look to the US and the rest of Europe. Francis Bacon, Anselm Kiefer, Julian Schnabel, Bill Viola and Georg Baselitz are some of the names that grace this three-storey space.

Positioned as it is just over the hills from Tuscany and the Renaissance grandeur of Florence, the very contemporary nature of this collection is both intriguing and, frankly, a bit of a relief from Madonnas and Last Suppers.

In a way it's much like any other contemporary gallery - except that you can't just wander in off the street. Each visit must be booked in advance and no more than 25 people are allowed in at any one time. Compared with the stampede in so many of Italy's museums, it's a privilege to enjoy a gallery practically to yourself. Anyone can come - it's free and, once you're there, the place is yours for up to two and a half hours.

When I visited, the group I was with dissipated around the building and I was able to enjoy my favourite piece - a painting by Nunzio, which made me gasp when I walked into the room - alone. Looking at an artwork in silence, without distraction, is a treat.

Visiting the collection isn't a perfect experience, however. The space is maze-like, and there is nothing to explain the groupings. But it is emphatically a personal collection, not a museum or education centre - art history through the eyes of an art lover. I could have stayed all day.

NEED TO KNOW

British Airways (0844 4930787, www.ba.com) flies from Gatwick to Bologna from £104 return. From Bologna station the train to Reggio Emilia takes 35 minutes.

Collezione Maramotti (00 39 0522 382484, www.collezionemaramotti.org): free, booking essential.

Stay Albergo delle Notarie, 5 Via Palazzolo, Reggio Emilia (00 39 0522 453 500, www.albergonotarie.it) has double rooms with breakfast from £103.

Eat Ristorante della Notarie (0039 0522 453 700, www.albergonotarie.it) has fine local dishes. For a hipper spot, try Soqquadro, (00 39 0522 444 444).

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