About Abruzzo

Montesilvano Colle from below 0

Province of Pescara / The Coast

Montesilvano Colle

and a tale of Scottish soldiers Long before the town spilled down the hillside and onto the coastal plain, there was Montesilvano Colle, or ‘Lu Colle’ (the hill) for short. At that time Montesilvano meant what it said: wooded hill. It was then a drowsy hamlet, nestling among thick pine woods that crept all the way down to the sea. Now on the plain the trees have been replaced by a forest of apartment buildings which continue to reproduce at a terrifying rate. ‘Colle’, though, relatively untouched by the building boom of the sixties and the 2000s, maintains the easy-going charm of a country borgo. It is most pleasant to...

bike path with sea on left and bike in forefront 5

Province of Chieti / The Coast

The Trabocchi Coast, where Biking is Bliss

Let’s go for a spin “When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking.”    Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Why, I begin to wonder, as we heave our bikes onto the car roof, nipping our fingers in the process, is ‘going for a spin’ on the Adriatic Cycle Route beginning to seem like a major enterprise?  And why do I feel anxious?  Somewhere I have read that the Ciclovia Adriatica will end up being the longest...

Jump for joy in San Vito 4

Province of Chieti / The Coast

Tigger-Happy in San Vito Chietino

On a sunny June morning in San Vito it seems a sin not to be joyful.  Your first impressions, though, might leave you wondering. The town at first glance seems little more than a cheerless strip of buildings on either side of a road that rushes down to the sea, swerving abruptly southward as if anxious to leave it all behind. In San Vito there is no seafront to speak of, no promenade where you might enjoy an ice cream and an evening stroll, the holiday flats down at the shore are drab/shabby and the main beach itself is cramped.  Where, you might wonder, is the joy? Trabocchi Well,...

Fontana Luminosa 6

Mountains / Province of L'Aquila

L’Aquila: The Fighter Still Remains

Sometimes life delivers its own soundtrack. As we drive into L’Aquila, Paul Simon is singing about a boxer that… …carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down or cut him till he cried out in his anger and his shame, “I am leaving, I am leaving” but the fighter still remains. L’Aquila still carries reminders of that terrible night of 6 April, 2009. Brokenness is all around. Alongside many a gleaming new building stands the carcass of its formal self, roof sagging, windows gaping, the whole crumbling edifice held together by metal and wood scaffolding to prevent further collapse. This is our first visit since the earthquake....

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Mountains / Province of L'Aquila

The Magical Bosco di Sant’Antonio

Tell me, what comes to mind when you think of a wood? Well, trees of course. All woods have trees. And? More trees. What kind of trees? That would depend on the kind of wood. Birch, beech, pine… What about Saint Anthony’s Wood? Ah. Il Bosco di Sant’Antonio. There are trees there too, mostly beech. But they’re not just any trees. No? Oh no. They are fantastical creatures straight from the pages of a storybook. Some are multi-limbed mythological sea creatures, and others are funny, friendly giants. There are straight and solemn pillars of trees whose topmost leafy branches arch and touch to form a cathedral roof, whose leaves...

Le Conche, Festa of St. Bartholomew, Roccamorice 5

Mountains / Province of Pescara

Roccamorice, Prince Charming and a Grisly Martrydom

Believe you me, persuasive salespeople can be trouble. Take restaurants for instance. All it takes is an eloquent waiter to sweet-talk me down the slippery slope of the pudding menu. And that’s what happens in Roccamorice.  Only this time it is not a restaurant but a shop – a ‘shoe boutique’, as it happens, and the only store open on the main street, now baking in the August sun. It has just opened for afternoon trade and we duck under the awning with the excuse of admiring the colourful array of trekking shoes in the outdoor display. Out comes the owner, who just happens to be charming and good-looking....

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Mountains / Province of Teramo

Civitella del Tronto

Saved for a rainy day We are driving on a country road, peering through rain-splattered windows, when someone remarks, predictably, that it would all look so much better if the sun were shining. It could be Scotland We are in the province of Teramo, heading for Civitella del Tronto, and the morning that started out dull and unpromising has become wild and wet. But even on this rain-swept day the landscape has its own beauty: the patchwork fields fringed by woodland, the mist ribboning the mountains in the distance.  There’s not a soul about – only a few sheep that pause in their munching and raise their sodden heads...

Montresilvano Beach 3

Province of Pescara / The Coast

Montesilvano: the beach

Beats me why anyone would want a warm sticky doughnut when temperatures are nudging 40° but it seems that people do. Why else would a jaunty cart featuring a doughnut-munching Homer Simpson appear on the beach at around 10 every morning in summer?  Why else would the peace be shattered by the cry of CiaaAAMMBELLE if not to alert the sunbathing public that their favourite seaside snack was on its way?  It pays to get to the beach well before Ciambelle Man. 7.30am is good.  At that time beach noises are as they should be and the sea is often glorious – limpid round the edges, sun-spangled in the...