• Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
Italian Notes
  • HOME
  • PEOPLE & PLACES
    • Abruzzo
    • Basilicata
    • Calabria
    • Campania
    • Emilia-Romagna
    • Friuli-Venezia Giulia
    • Lazio
    • Liguria
    • Lombardia-Lombardy
    • Marche
    • Molise
    • Piemonte-Piedmont
    • Puglia – Apulia
    • Sicilia
    • Toscana-Tuscany
    • Trentino-Alto Adige – Trentino-South Tyrol
    • Umbria
    • Veneto
  • FOOD
    • Antipasti
    • Primi piatti
    • Secondi piatti
    • Dolci
  • PR/ADVERTISING
  • Search
  • Menu Menu

Among Castles and Pastures
in Abruzzo National parks

Abruzzo national parks are among the largest protected areas in Europe. Natural beauty interspersed with ancient castles, convents, villages and pastures.

The Abruzzo national parks Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga offer a perfect setting for outdoor activities such as skiing, biking, hiking and canoeing. But there is also a rich tradition with castles, convents, villages and pastures to explore.

Abruzzo national parks

An old castle perched on a hilltop

Explore the Hilltop Villages

While high mountains dominate the Gran Sasso, the eastern part is characterized by smooth undulating hills and valleys. It’s a friendly welcoming landscape, not densely populated but with enough dotted villages to break the monotony.

Many of these tiny towns deserve exploration for their regional products, the sweeping views and the challenge of getting there. Their hilltop location and names reveal a military strategic origin as as part of a medieval defense line, and among the extremely narrow alleys and old brick houses immense castles and fortresses can be seen.

Photo of Abruzzo landscape

An Impenetrable Town

One of these towns is Civitella del Tronto with a population of about 5 000 people. Even though ‘civitella’ is the diminutive of ‘civita’ meaning ‘city’ the fortress dating back to 1255 is the largest of its kind in Italy with a total surface of 25,000 square meters and ambient living quarters. A few centuries ago the fortress must have been virtually impenetrable. The walkway leading up to the summit only allowed one person to go through at a time. Futhermore enemies had to cross a moat with a guarded drawbridge. According to legend foreign soldiers once tried rock climbing in order to stage a surprise attack, but they were discovered and stopped by falling millstones. No wonder the people of Civitella have been honoured for their ability to hold up resistance against invading armies.

Civitella del Tronto is surrounded by vertical cliffs, deep gorges and mystic abbeys and convents. And in the plains below sheep graze from spring to fall when the Italian equivalent of American cowboys drive their herds south to the milder Puglian climate as part of the bi-annual ‘tranzumanza’ that also passes through the region of Molise.

Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Share on Reddit
  • Share by Mail
22 replies
  1. Sophie
    Sophie says:
    March 12, 2013 at 7:02 pm

    I saw a transumanza in Le Marche one early morning a couple of years ago. Sadly didn’t have time to follow along to the top of the mountain.

    Reply
    • admin
      admin says:
      March 13, 2013 at 9:09 am

      Maybe you should go back on shepherding holiday. I’ve heard it’s the new black in package tours:)

      Reply
  2. Leigh
    Leigh says:
    March 12, 2013 at 9:16 pm

    I can’t imagine trying to penetrate these places. Looks like an idyllic area to explore.

    Reply
    • admin
      admin says:
      March 13, 2013 at 9:10 am

      Idyllic sounds like the right word. It’s peaceful, picturesque and there’s lots of great food to make you happy.

      Reply
  3. Aggy
    Aggy says:
    March 12, 2013 at 9:34 pm

    Sounds like my kind of place. Would love to visit this place someday :)

    Reply
    • admin
      admin says:
      March 13, 2013 at 9:11 am

      Sure you’ll make it.

      Reply
  4. Natasha von Geldern
    Natasha von Geldern says:
    March 13, 2013 at 11:00 am

    Sounds wonderful, I bet there’s good hiking and rock climbing there (as well as the history, the architecture, the food etc etc).

    Reply
    • admin
      admin says:
      March 15, 2013 at 9:29 am

      That’s right. Abruzzo it really wonderful – in an understated rural kind of way.

      Reply
  5. Arianna
    Arianna says:
    March 13, 2013 at 9:50 pm

    Great tips, I want to discover Abruzzo now. I love climbing so it might be a great place to go!

    Reply
    • admin
      admin says:
      March 15, 2013 at 9:30 am

      I haven’t checked out the climbing in Abruzzo. I leave that to my son.

      Reply
  6. Mary {The World Is A Book}
    Mary {The World Is A Book} says:
    March 14, 2013 at 5:14 am

    The fortress sounds like a very interesting place. I love National parks and this looks like a great place with a lot to offer. I’m especially intrigued by the mystic abbeys and convents. Our US parks don’t have that kind of history on our parks.

    Reply
    • admin
      admin says:
      March 15, 2013 at 9:32 am

      That’s the remarkable thing about Italy, I think. Every square metre of the country oozes history.

      Reply
  7. Cathy Sweeney
    Cathy Sweeney says:
    March 16, 2013 at 3:21 am

    I think these European towns that were once fortresses are so fascinating. Would love to visit Civitella del Tronto — must be beautiful in the setting of a national park, too.

    Reply
    • admin
      admin says:
      March 17, 2013 at 11:56 am

      I agree. And in Italy fortified towns and villages are all over the place.

      Reply
  8. Donna Hull
    Donna Hull says:
    March 16, 2013 at 1:50 pm

    I’ll be visiting Abruzzo this fall. After reading your article, I can’t wait!

    Reply
    • admin
      admin says:
      March 17, 2013 at 11:57 am

      Glad to raise your expectations. Abruzzo cannot disappoint.

      Reply
  9. TheTuscan
    TheTuscan says:
    March 16, 2013 at 8:45 pm

    Abruzzo features the highest peaks in Italy outside the Alps. Also people, in my experience, are very friendly.
    You’re my best source about spots and things I don’t know of Italy, which is incidentally also my motherland.
    There is so much to discover in Italy that it is impossible to know everything. That’s frustratring.

    Reply
  10. Laliv
    Laliv says:
    March 16, 2013 at 9:21 pm

    Looks so great. I need to go there!

    Reply
  11. InsideJourneys
    InsideJourneys says:
    March 18, 2013 at 10:18 pm

    I’d go for the moat, the reliving of history and a walk through those fields — so inviting.

    Reply
    • admin
      admin says:
      March 20, 2013 at 9:44 am

      Indeed. And very different from West India, I suppose.

      Reply
  12. Laurel
    Laurel says:
    March 19, 2013 at 2:59 pm

    One of my goals is to spend more time exploring the more natural side of Italy. This would fit right in with my plans and looks gorgeous!

    Reply
    • admin
      admin says:
      March 20, 2013 at 9:48 am

      It is a breathtaking and beautiful area.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Followon TwitterSubscribeto RSS Feed

Booking

Booking.com

Rental cars

More about food

Antipasti recipes - Italian NotesANTIPASTI RECIPES

Primi Piatti - Italian Notes

PRIMI PIATTI

Secondi piatti - Italian Notes

SECONDI PIATTI

Dolci - Italian Notes

DOLCI

Roasted leeks with lemon peel and walnutsPhoto of Roasted leeks with lemon peel and walnutsApple Flan From PiedmontApple Flan From Piedmont
Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

Accept settingsHide notification onlySettings

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Google Analytics Cookies

These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.

If you do not want that we track your visit to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Other cookies

The following cookies are also needed - You can choose if you want to allow them:

Accept settingsHide notification only