About Abruzzo

Tagged: Capestrano

Rocca Calascio

Mountains / Province of L'Aquila / Uncategorized

Rocca Calascio

Beside a turn in the zig-zag road to Rocca Calascio, some thoughtful person has organized the ideal picnic spot. Under a bower of ivy and spring flowers is a table and benches, just waiting to be used. Only we don’t have a picnic. Déjeuner sur L’herbe Never mind, in the borgo of Calascio we find a bar where the owner does a line in sardonic wit (free) and sandwiches (reasonably priced).  We take our sandwiches out to a grassy promontory. Though the sun is shining, the breeze from the Gran Sasso carries a memory of snow. We are at 1400 metres above sea level and the world is at our...

view of Capestrano 2

Mountains / Province of L'Aquila

Capestrano

In the summer of 1934, a certain farmer named Michele was digging trenches in his fields when his plough hit something solid. More digging revealed a limestone sculpture, later ascertained to be from the sixth-fifth century BC. It is the oldest sculpted figure in Italy, the Guerriero di Capestrano. The warrior has been identified as Nevio Pompuledio. But more interesting to me is what the sculpture reveals about the craftsmanship of a people – the Piceni – who lived in an era almost too distant and too different to imagine, in a landscape which instead has perhaps altered little. Back to the present When we arrive in Capestrano on...