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I was born in Abruzzo, close to Teramo and for 19 years I’ve never realized how beautiful my region is.
That is why I decided to plan a three-day road trip trying to touch as many places as possible of my interest, and, searching for them before leaving, I discovered that there is much more and this article (if you can call it that) is just one small part of what you can found in Abruzzo. So, read it and if you’ll find yourself interested in what I have written, I invite you to go and experience those and other places that I didn’t have time to visit.
DAY 1
Our starting point was Montorio al Vomano, the town where I grew up as well as the door of the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park. Its name derives from Mons Aureus, the golden mountain, probably due to the presence of the Hill in which the old part of the town is concentrated. The historic center has its heart in Piazza Orsini and the Church of San Rocco, built around the 16th century; from here wind the road below and the Corso with its characteristic ruette (small streets). The town enjoys naturalistic beauties such as the Riverfront which is part of the equipped Territorial Park of the Vomano River and which, through the route of the ancient Via Cecilia, reaches the Temple of Hercules dating back to the Italic era.
Montorio al Vomano and its Hill
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We left Montorio for L'Aquila, the resilient city, which is slowly rebuilding itself more beautiful than before. The historic center, despite being partially closed by construction sites, reveals some beauties recently reopened after restoration. On the main square there is the Church of Santa Maria del Suffragio, built in 1713 in memory of the victims of the earthquake of 1703 and therefore a symbol of the 18th century reconstruction of the capital. We have not visited the city in depth due to our lack of time but we did not miss the Basilica of San Bernardino, reopened to the public in 2015, of which we were mainly struck by the interior, with a carved wooden baroque organ and the golden ceiling to which the 18th century workers worked. The Basilica, with its original facade in Renaissance Abruzzo style, preserves the remains of San Bernardino da Siena.
Basilica of San Bernardino (interiors)
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We walked up to the Fountain of Light and the Park of the Castle that houses the Spanish Fortress and from 2012 also the Auditorium of the Park designed by Renzo Piano to contribute to the reconstruction after the earthquake and recognizable for its coating with colored wooden strips.
Auditorium of the Park (outdoor)
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We could not leave L'Aquila without a quick visit to the Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio, located just outside the walls and commissioned in 1288 by Pietro da Morrone, crowned Pope Celestine V (do you remember the one of the great refusal?) the that same Basilica. While the simple interior with three naves and ogival arches on octagonal pillars, with a wooden roof and apse divided into five parts, presents an overlap of different styles, the external facade is considered the maximum expression of the Roman-Gothic style of Abruzzo.
Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio (outdoor)
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We left L'Aquila for Santo Stefano di Sessanio, the most suggestive village of the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park, as well as completely built in white limestone. The name could derive from Sextantio, a small Roman settlement six miles far from a more important Roman village. From the 13th century Santo Stefano was included in the feudal Barony of Carapelle while from 1579 it came into the possession of Medici family, which had the Medicea tower built (today severely damaged by the earthquake) and the entrance portal with the emblem noble. Picturesque for its views with decorated doors and balconies, the village seems to leave nothing to chance.
Santo Stefano di Sessanio
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Just five minutes far by car there is Calascio, another quaint village, renowned mainly for its Rocca. Located at 1460 meters above sea level, it is the highest in Europe and one of the fifteen most beautiful castles in the world. It was not a castle inhabited by princes and princesses, but a military fortress, a control and sighting tower, placed in that point during the 11th-12th century above all for a strategic question, it had to be part of a defensive system made up of other units that reached the Adriatic Sea. The oldest part is identified in the central keep, around which the angular circular towers were subsequently added, commissioned by Antonio Piccolomini.
Rocca Calascio
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You can access the Rocca coming from Santo Stefano and then following in the footsteps of the ancient shepherds who, during the transumanza, walked along what was called the Tratturo Magno; or directly from the village of Calascio through a more bristling and rocky path, along which the octagonal Church of Santa Maria della Pietà in placed, built by the shepherds as a sign of gratitude to the Madonna after the rejection of a group of brigands.
Church of Santa Maria della Pietà (outdoor)
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We head towards Bominaco, immersed in silence and nature, known for the presence not far from the center, of the Benedictine monastic complex which includes the Abbey of Santa Maria Assunta and the Oratory of San Pellegrino, built from the 8th century by order of Charlemagne.
Going up from the back of the Abbey of Santa Maria Assunta you can admire the three apses with single lancet windows, reaching the facade instead opens a majestic Romanesque portal. The guide who accompanied us boasted of how the abbey was the only one in Abruzzo (and, if I remember correctly, in all of Italy) to possess all the complete ecclesiastical furnishings: the ciborium, the ambo based square, the abbey church, the Easter candlestick. The simple central nave is characterized by the original stone decoration, identifiable in the capitals, all different, carved by the monks themselves.
Abbey of Santa Maria Assunta (interiors)
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From the outside the Oratory of San Pellegrino seems very modest but inside it shows us its priceless wealth so as to deserve the appellative of Sistine Chapel of Abruzzo. It presents a unique and rectangular classroom, which preserves and tells through a cycle of frescoes that cover the totality of the walls some scenes from the life of Jesus and the Saint, stylistically attributable to three distinct authors called masters. According to scholars, it is a matter of Gothic naturalism that anticipates the Giottesque pictorial season. Two marble plutei carved with the image of a dragon and a griffin separate the area for pilgrims from that of the monks. Unique in its genre is the fresco depicting the calendar, painted on two sides which shows, in addition to the months represented by allegorical figures, also the days with the festivities, the lunar phases and the zodiac signs.
Oratory of San Pellegrino (interiors)
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We arrive in Roccamorice and from there, after a few more minutes by car and on foot between tall grass and rocky spurs, we reach the Hermitage of San Bartolomeo in Legio where Celestino V spent some years of his life as a hermit, from 1274 to 1276. Did you know that Abruzzo is the area with the largest concentration of hermitages in the world (after Tibet)? When I discovered it I didn't want to believe it, I who have always been attracted to these places isolated from the rest of the world, I had so many of them right under my eyes. The Hermitage of San Bartolomeo, built by Pope Celestino V like many others in the area (eg: Hermitage of Sant’Onofrio al Morrone), is perfectly preserved and has a part of the fresco depicting Christ and the Virgin Mary on the door. Being a place of prayer and meditation, the interior spaces are minimal and modest: the small niche of the altar with the statue of St. Bartholomew and, through a small door, the spartan hermit cell with the hearth. However, the beauty of the Hermitage lies in the surrounding landscape, we reached it at sunset when the sun, turning to the right, slowly descends behind the mountains and lights up the rock in which it is set.
Hermitage of San Bartolomeo in Legio (outdoor)
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DAY 2
During the second day we walked around Sulmona, a city of confetti renowned throughout the world and also known for being the birthplace of Publio Ovidio Nasone (author of Le Metamorfosi). The center is concentrated around Piazza Garibaldi, the market square that occasionally also hosts religious events and historical re-enactments (eg: Giostra Cavalleresca, Madonna che scappa). The square is cut by the medieval aqueduct, built under the reign of Manfred, son of Emperor Frederick II of Swabia, a splendid example of medieval engineering with its pointed arches and the function of transporting the waters of the Gizio river into the city.
Piazza Garibaldi and medieval aqueduct
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Getting lost in the streets we meet the Complex of Santissima Annunziata, consisting of a church and a palace, and considered the most significant monument of the city of Sulmona. For the long yard to which it was subjected during the fifteenth century, the façade presents various styles, from medieval to Renaissance forms, while the adjacent building has changed its function over the centuries, first used as a Civil Hospital, today houses the Civic Museum. The interior is divided into three naves and its richness is manifested through the stucco and altar covering and balustrades in polychrome marble.
Church of Santissima Annunziata (interiors)
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The Church of Santa Maria della Tomba is located in Piazza Plebiscito and legend has it that the term of the tomb comes from the grave or the domus of Ovid. The traditional rectangular façade in Romanesque-Gothic style has a pointed arched portal on which the coat of arms of the Aragona family is carved, which in the Middle Age had dominion over Sulmona.
Church of Santa Maria della Tomba (outdoor)
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We reach Pacentro, a small folkloric village (part of the Most Beautiful Borghi of Italy Club) perched on the slopes of the Morrone Mountains, at the entrance to the Peligna Valley. About the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore or della Misericordia, dedicated to the patron saint of the town, we were mainly struck by the interior, remodeled over the centuries: between the XVII and XVIII centuries, it was enriched with lateral Baroque-style altars and towards the end from the nineteenth, the cross vaults of the side naves and the flat ceiling of the central hall were decorated with stucco bas-reliefs with sacred images and geometric and floral motifs. The bell tower, with a pyramidal spire, is visible on the country's skyline.
The Caldora Castle, an ancient fortification and temporary residence of the Caldora family of the kingdom of Naples, qualifies as the most representative building of the town. Antecedent to the fourteenth century, it is built on a trapezoidal base at whose corners four square-based towers stand, of which today only three are visible (of the King, Phantom and Siege) and from which one contemplates the landscape of Peligna Valley and the Majella National Park.
View from Caldora Castle
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We arrive in Pescocostanzo, after a short drive, located in a territory dominated mainly by pastures and attractive for its ski facilities, as well as the nearby Rivisondoli and Roccaraso.
Although small, the village has many religious buildings, first of all the Basilica of Santa Maria del Colle whose ancient Romanesque-Gothic portal was transferred to the entrance of the northern side, on the top of a flight of stairs, which also houses the Church of Santa Maria del Suffragio. On an axis along the street in two-tone stone slabs we reach the Piazza del Municipio reserved for Palazzo Fanzago, Palazzo del Municipio and the major civil architectures of the town.
Pescocostanzo and Piazza del Municipio
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The long erosion of the waters of the Sagittarius river, gave birth to a wonderful canyon, inhabited by an immense variety of flora and fauna, are the Gorges of Sagittarius, a protected natural area since 1997. Along the way by car through the road that goes from Anversa degli Abruzzi to Cocullo, plenty of naturalistic places, we meet the Hermitage of Saint Dominic, built on the shores of the homonymous lake. The sanctuary is located in the municipality of Villalago, Villa de Lacu, commissioned by the Saint who arrived in the Sagittarius Valley and lived in the enchantment of these places around the 11th century. Through the portico equipped with mullioned windows and wall paintings you enter the small church its altar hides on the left a simple entrance leading to the most significant part of this unusual place of worship, the Grotta di San Domenico, within which the Saint used to rest at shelter from the heat.
Hermitage of Saint Dominic (outdoor)
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DAY 3
On the third day we visit Scanno, a small nativity scene perched on a spur of rock on the edge of the National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise. The country has been called the most beautiful village in Italy by CNN and over the years has attracted artists from all over the world, first of all the Dutch engraver and graphic designer Maurits Cornelis Escher and the French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson who immortalized its beauties.
Every corner of the town is photogenic: small houses leaning against the typical cemmause (access stairways), narrow streets, decorated portals, ancient arches, Gothic, Romanesque and Baroque churches, goldsmith shops, panoramas that open towards nature and a lot of silence. In short, a great beauty for the eyes!
Scanno
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We head towards Roccascalegna to visit the castle which, with Rocca Calascio, is called the most beautiful in Abruzzo. The name comes from Rocca with the wooden staircase which led from the village directly to the tower of the Castle, built in the Norman period for defensive purposes and remodel between the 500s and the 600s. It stands on an imposing rocky outcrop, dominates the Rio Secco Valley and to reach it, along a challenging staircase, you come across an ancient church dedicated to St. Peter. Once you reach the top you can visit the sentinel tower, the prison tower, the chapel and the Angevin tower without mentioning the splendid view from the top of the cliff.
Roccascalegna
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We continue towards the coast; after all this mountain we deserve some sea! We choose the Costa dei Trabocchi, a stretch of coast in the province of Chieti (which runs from Francavilla al Mare to San Salvo, passing through Ortona, Fossacesia, San Vito Chietino and Vasto), characterized by trabocchi, old fishing machines on stilts so much celebrated by Gabriele D'Annunzio (and probably also by Pope Celestino V). The choice of sandy and pebble beaches to spend the day is varied: in Ortona the beach of Ripari di Giobbe, in San Vito Chietino the beach of Calata Turchino, not to mention Fossacesia and, further south, of the well-known Natural Regional Reserve of Punta Aderci. This extends from the beach of Punta Penna, adjacent to the Port of Vasto, at the mouth of the river Sinello, and the promontory with the homonymous overflow characterizes the entire area enclosing the park and the seabed.
Punta Aderci
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Lying on the top of a rocky hill a little further inland, there is the village of Rocca San Giovanni, of medieval origin. The village is completely surrounded by cultivated fields and its heart is identified in Piazza degli Eroi, with the Romanesque parish complex of the Church of Saint Matthew the Apostle, the Palazzo municipale (Town Hall) and the adjacent bell tower.
Rocca San Giovanni
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The sun that recedes behind the hills warns us that our tour is over and to make the end up to the beauty enjoyed in the previous days, we did not miss the typical fish dinner on a Trabocco, suspended between sea and wind.
Trabocco Punta Cavalluccio
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CURIOSITY
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Did you know that Abruzzo is the area with the largest concentration of hermitages in the world (after Tibet)? When I discovered it I didn't want to believe it, I who have always been attracted to these places isolated from the rest of the world, I had so many of them right under my eyes.
Have you noticed how almost all the churches we met during our Abruzzo tour present a square façade? I have documented myself: it is the characteristic of the Abruzzese-style church of Aquila, with a square façade with horizontal crowning, divided into two or three orders, with one or more radial roses in the center, and at the base one or three portals in axis, from the round arch, often splayed if it is Gothic influences and from the lunette frescoed or decorated with a sacred bas-relief.
I also wondered what were the criteria to be admitted to the list of the Most Beautiful Borghi in Italy and when I returned home I looked for. First of all, the population of the village must not exceed 2,000 inhabitants, then it must meet the requirements of integrity of the urban fabric, architectural harmony, livability of the village, artistic-historical quality of the building heritage, as well as guarantee specific services to the citizen. I discovered that Abruzzo owns 24 of Borghi in this list (third in Italy after Umbria and Marche) and we have visited six, mainly in the province of L'Aquila.
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