From the peaks of the Gran Sasso to the trabocchi of San Vito, from Marsican brown bears to the golden gulf of Vasto, everything comes together to make Abruzzo “Italy's best-kept secret”.
From the peaks of the Gran Sasso and the Maiella to the trabocchi of San Vito, from Marsican brown bears to the golden gulf of Vasto, a remarkable variety of landforms, wildlife and landscapes is contained within a limited geographical area, helping to define the distinctive character of an Italian region full of striking contrasts: Abruzzo.
The concentration of no fewer than three national parks — the Parco Nazionale della Majella, the Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga and the Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise national park — together with the Sirente-Velino Regional Natural Park, the Torri del Cerrano marine reserve and a further 38 protected areas, gives the region a double distinction: the greenest and also the highest region in Europe.
The Abruzzo mountain massifs are home to the most imposing peaks in the entire Apennines: the Corno Grande of the Gran Sasso (2,914 m) and Monte Amaro (2,795 m, the highest point of the Majella), and consequently to springs, waterfalls and numerous lakes, among them Scanno (the largest), Campotosto and Bomba, which are popular with water sports enthusiasts, from canoeing to kitesurfing.
The coastline is divided into two strikingly different halves: the northern stretch, with broad sandy beaches lined with well-equipped, well-organised lidos, contrasts with the southern section, which is more jagged, with coves, rocky stretches, reefs, pebbles and, here and there, the trabocchi themselves — these characteristic ancient fishing machines are also found along the Molise and Gargano shores below.
The hinterland encompasses a wealth of historic town centres, fortresses, castles (such as the Castello Piccolomini di Celano), abbeys, archaeological sites, hermitages and villages, 20 of which belong to the so-called "borghi più belli d'Italia" circuit. A visit to historic Sulmona, birthplace of Ovid, to the medieval cathedral of Teramo with the remains of its Roman theatre and amphitheatre, to the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Chieti and its eleventh-century cathedral of San Giustino, to the small villages of the Valle del Sangro or to the coastal tourist resorts is simply not to be missed.
Beyond the most widely used and slightly overworked slogan of Abruzzo as "forte e gentile" ("strong and gentle"), coined by the journalist and diplomat Primo Levi (a namesake of the more celebrated author of If This Is a Man), it is worth noting that foreign travel websites have awarded Abruzzo the far more flattering label of "Italy's best-kept secret".
