Slow luxury in Abruzzo in 9 highlights

Forget Tuscany. Italy's next luxury destination is AbruzzoWith this clever slogan, the central Italian region of Abruzzo has launched a campaign to attract European and American tourists. Abruzzo has been described as "Italy's best-kept secret," but if local officials and entrepreneurs have their way, it's now Abruzzo's turn to become a top destination, after Tuscany, Umbria, Le Marche, and Piedmont. Not for mass and group tourism, but for those who want to experience the region consciously and seek out nature, culture, authenticity, and delicious regional food and drink. In short, slow luxury.

An underlying message is that the earthquake which on April 6, 2009, destroyed the capital L'Aquila and countless villages, is now a thing of the past. 16 years later, In L'Aquila, 98% of residential buildings and 60% of public buildings have been restored.

It's taken a long time, and partly due to Italy's legendary bureaucracy, but restoring severely damaged homes and monuments, according to anti-earthquake standards and while preserving their historic character, is simply a time-consuming—and very expensive—process. A tour of the region proves that Abruzzo is indeed ready to welcome curious visitors.

1. L'Aquila, Capital of Culture in 2026

Reconstruction in L'Aquila is now proceeding rapidly. The jungle of cranes towering over the city has thinned out drastically in recent years. Scaffolding and supports no longer dominate the streetscape. The streets in the city center have been neatly renovated, freshly painted, and are packed on weekends.

Cafes and restaurants are ready to welcome visitors and you can stay overnight in a large number of recently opened B&Bs and holiday homes, often housed in freshly restored antique buildings. palaces.

In 2026 L'Aquila will be Italian Capital of Culture, just in time now that the main monuments have been or are being restored to their former glory. Such as the town hall, the Palazzo Margherita, where Margaret of Parma lived in the 16th century. (The former governor of the Netherlands later held the same position in Abruzzo.)

The city theater is about to reopen. Sun is still in scaffolding, but that does not apply to the massive Basilica di Santa Maria di CollemaggioThe favorite church of the Aquila was founded by Celestine V, the last pope to resign voluntarily before Benedict XVI followed suit in 2013.

Celestine issued the so-called Forgiveness out, a popular festival that is still celebrated on August 28th and 29th and is accompanied by a special treat for Catholics: total indulgence for anyone who enters the basilica on those days.

An absolute must after all is the Bar Fratelli Nurzia, opposite the Cathedral, the temple of the eponymous torrone teneroSoft bars made with chocolate, honey, egg white, and hazelnuts or almonds. In Italy, they're a fitting end to the Christmas meal.

2. Campo Imperatore, cinematic highlight

A fifteen minute drive from L'Aquila, the Assergi exit of the autostrada leads to Source Cerreto, a group of hotels next to the valley station of the cable car to the Campo Imperatore plateauOne of them, which resembles a brightly colored fairytale house, was for a short time the forced shelter of Mussolini, after being voted out of office by his fascist comrades on July 25, 1943. (He was later transferred to the hotel on top of the mountain.)

The cable bridges the kilometer difference in altitude – from 1.130 to 2.130 meters – in 7 minutes, but as an active alternative you can also use the underlying path in summer, a climb of about 3 hours. At the top you arrive in a small ski area, where in summer it is good to walk and climb up to the highest peak of the Apennines, the big horn (2.910 meters).

There you will also find the pitiful remains of a rapidly melting glacierThe lift and slopes were built in the 30s and were rather neglected for a long time, but have recently been restored to service. This is partly due to climate change, which, according to the resort's director, will eliminate competition from nearby lower-altitude ski resorts: "We still have plenty of snow well into April."

Below the ski area stretches the largest plateau in Europe, a beautiful national park where sheep, horses and cattle graze freely in the summer and where films have been and are regularly shot, with big names such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Richard Gere, Rutger Hauer, George Clooney and Ridley Scott, whose turned here The Dog Stars will be released in 2026.

A few barracks built for a film in 1975 now serve as basic dining facilities where you can enjoy roasted mutton and sharp cheese. In summer, the plateau is idyllically cool for walking and cycling.

Castel del Monte

On the edge of the plateau, in the Gran Sasso National Park, literally the Great Stone, are a few rustic medieval villages. These were also affected by the earthquake, but the narrow streets with their houses built of white stone now look beautiful again.

Castel del Monte was once considered Capital of Transhumance, the capital of the annual migration of sheep between Campo Imperatore and the warm southern Apulia. Not much of that remains now. In previous centuries, 2 to 3 million sheep roamed the plateau; now they number in the thousands, and shepherds are nowhere to be found.

But the tradition lives on in Castel del Monte in a small museum with objects such as sheep herders' clogs and a metal collar with sharp spikes that was put on their dogs to prevent the wolves – which still live here today – from jumping at their throats.

At the local grocery store and eatery you will find the Canestrato di Castel del Monte, a spicy cheese made from raw sheep's milk, alongside regional products such as the cicolana di fegato, mortadella d'asino en sugna alle erbe: sausages made from pork liver and donkey meat, and lard with wild herbs. (For those who find this too much, there are, of course, less exotic dishes available.)

calascio

A little further on you come to Calascio, which now has fewer than 100 inhabitants, but was rich and important in the Middle Ages due to the trade in sheep wool, which was bought up by Florentine merchants.

The town, which has been thoroughly renovated since the earthquake, has retained a series of beautiful churches from its former prosperity, which are worth a visit in themselves. The oldest of these is the 13th^e-century Church of San Donato, with its well-preserved, at once modest and lifelike frescoes.

From the 16^e century dates back to the Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie, which was slightly damaged in the earthquake and is still awaiting repair. Here, the exuberant Neapolitan Baroque prevails, with painted and gilded wood passing for marble and gold, and separate altars for the eight wealthiest families of Calascio.

Next to the church is a simply furnished monastery that now offers advanced courses for young musicians. Calascio is also a starting point for cycling and hiking tours on the plateau.

Bominaco

Further south, you'll drive through the Navelli plain, famous for the saffron harvested here. At the end of October, the fields here are purple with crocuses, from which the "gold of Abruzzo" is extracted.

In the hamlet of Bominaco, besides a Romanesque church and a medieval castle, you will find a Gothic gem, the Oratorio di San Pellegrino, a martyr from the region for whom already in the 7^e century a sanctuary was established. The walls of the small prayer house, known as the 'Sistine Chapel of Abruzzo' and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996, are entirely covered with frescoes.

Like a medieval comic strip, they tell the then-illiterate believers the life and suffering of Christ and the local saint, as well as the Last Judgment, complete with a few beautiful devils incarnate. If you examine the paintings intently with the help of a reliable travel guide, you'll easily spend an hour exploring.

The Stiffe Caves

15 kilometers from L'Aquila, you can enjoy the pleasant weather of the Stiffe Caves, located in the Sirente-Velino Regional Park, named after the two peaks, respectively 2.800 and 2.300 meters high. The chance of being alone here is slim, as with 40.000 visitors a year, the caves are one of Abruzzo's main tourist attractions.

The caves, over a kilometer deep and home to cave dwellers as far back as the Stone Age, have been open to the public since 1991. Visitors follow a 1.400-meter round-trip route along an underground river fed by a spring within the cave itself.

In the dim lighting, stalactites, stalagmites, caves and halls create a magical (I might as well use that word) impression, but the most impressive are two underground waterfalls, which cascade into crystal-clear pools.

Information: from April 1 to October 15 you can visit the caves from 10 am to 18 pm. The rest of the year they close an hour earlier. The visit is always led by a guide and lasts about an hour.

The tickets cost €12 for adults. Children between 6 and 14 years old, persons older than 70 and students pay € 10. For children under 6 years and disabled people with an accompanying person, admission is free.

Make sure you dress warmly: the temperature in the caves is quite low at around 10º C, even on a hot summer day!

More information about the caves can be found at the website.

Goriano Valli

The Sirente and Velino Park is enormous – 59 hectares, the size of the Dutch Noordoostpolder – and sparsely populated. A winding road through the park leads through endless deciduous forest, past picturesque gray villages, to Goriano Valli, a fraction(neighborhood) of the medieval town Tione degli Abruzzi. (Before 1930, Abruzzi was also used in the plural, and this spelling still survives in some place names.)

Like so many Abruzzese mountain villages, it is gradually being abandoned, so that it now has only 60 inhabitants, which swells to 130 in the summer when emigrants return on holiday. To counteract the depopulation, efforts are being made to attract visitors by opening B&Bs and setting out routes for hiking, trekking and mountain biking.

In Goriano they have also found an original attraction in the MuDi, the Diffuso Museum (dispersed museum). Rooms in 16 homes provide a glimpse into the past: a pre-war shop, a medieval almshouse, sheep and donkey stables, a wine tavern, a (real) 12^ecentury tower, etc.

Not very spectacular and not always open, but certainly charming, especially because the locals warmly welcome every visitor. For the ultimate in relaxation, you can visit the surrounding mountains. walking with a donkey on the hand.

Pennapiedimonte

The 3rd largest landscape park of Abruzzo is the Maiella National Park, named after the mountain range of the same name, where the highest peak, Monte Amaro (Bitter Mountain), reaches 2800 meters. Pennapiedimonte, located at an altitude of 700 meters, is a great starting point for mountain hikes.

The village is known for a centuries-old tradition of stonemasons (stonemasons), who long ago carved their homes into the steep mountain, then created facades for the surrounding area and now work as sculptors.

From the oldest part, where a modern hotel is located in a cave, you have a breathtaking view of the Maiella Massif and a gorge hundreds of meters deep. Interestingly, in Pennapiedimonte, the goal of attracting new people seems to have already been achieved.

Among the 450 residents are 150 foreigners. A British family cites the climate as the main reason, Americans find it simple and inexpensive, and everyone raves about the nature, the tranquility, and the people.

Villamagna

A little further on, less than 20 kilometers from the Adriatic coast, Villamagna says it all with wine. The hill on which the town of 2400 inhabitants is built is surrounded by vineyards that primarily produce the region's ubiquitous red wine. Montepulciano d'Abruzzo – not to be confused with the Tuscan Nobile di Montepulciano! – is grown.

Villamagna wine has recently been awarded the DOC designation (Denominazione d'Origine Controllata, comparable to the French Appellation Controlée). Villamagna DOC To be called Riserva, the wine must age for six months in barriques (small barrels) and twelve months to be called Riserva. The number of wine travelers and tasters is steadily increasing, and producers and hotels in Villamagna are therefore eagerly focusing on the ospitalità del vino. 

Those who find red a bit heavy in the summer can find solace in rosé and white wines – previously rare in Abruzzo – such as the almost extinct, but rediscovered local cultivar cocciola. Cheers!

Abruzzo, how to get there?

Traveling through Abruzzo is best done by car. From Rome, you can reach L'Aquila in an hour and a half via the A24, the Autostrada dei Parchi. The bus departing from Stazione Tiburtina in Rome takes just as long.

The train is hardly an option in Abruzzo, because there are no trains in Abruzzo except on the coast. frecce (Express trains operate. But if you want to explore the surrounding area, your own transportation is virtually essential.

Do you want to discover the Abruzzo for yourself? Preferably go in the spring or autumn. But if you can't go on holiday outside the summer months, then there is no man overboard. It is less touristy here than in Tuscany.

Tip:: Here you will find a list of the most beautiful places to stay in Abruzzo.