About Abruzzo

Tagged: Celestine V

Santo Spirito Hermitage 1

Mountains / Province of Pescara

The Hermitage of Santo Spirito

It’s ten kilometres to the Hermitage of Santo Spirito from Roccamorice.  The road takes us from the airy green foothills of the Maiella and plunges us deep under the leafy archways of an oak and beech forest.  Sunlight filters through the upper branches and spangles the road as we drive along.  The road ends in an open space and there, backed onto a rocky outcrop, is the Hermitage. Oh for the contemplative life. No wonder the poet Petrarca mentioned this place in his De Vita Solitaria as being conducive to asceticism. Even the most arid soul must surely be nourished by such beauty and silence  – silence, that is,...

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....