In certain – generally rather expensive – restaurants, they offer you what they call a menu de degustation: which means that rather than feeding you properly with meat and two veg, they show you a little of their art, teasing your taste buds with one bite of this and two bites of that and indicating what they would be capable of if you were offering them more of your time and money.
Today’s post is a little bit like that. On our recent trip to central Italy, we only had time for a brief excursion to and a short peek of the peaks of Abruzzi.
Most visitors approach the Abruzzi from the west, and that is how the region has opted to market itself: as a rural idyll no more than an hour away from Rome.
The “ascent via the eastern route”, however, will give you a much more dramatic intro. On your train ride from Pescara, you will be greeted by views of ice-covered mountain tops – in the month of June, mind you. Winter ice, it seems, takes a long time to melt at altitudes of nearly 3000 metres.
The capital of the Abruzzo region is L’Aquila – culturally speaking, that is. Administratively, this would be Pescara, which is a seaside town (even the foothills of the mountains are approx. 30 km away), while the Abruzzi range itself is carved up between three administrative regions (Abruzzo, Lazio, and Umbria).
Ah, Italy!
The town of L’Aquila is surrounded by mountains, but they are not quite close enough for a quick day trip.
For the best look at the peaks of Abruzzi, visit the Forte Spagnolo just east of the town centre.
This is also a nice area for a short walk. You get better views of the surrounding landscape from the fortress itself, but for a more scenic walk, take the route on the lower periphery.
Trains provide one good way of experiencing the Abruzzo region. Two lines lead out of L‘Aquila: one going to Sulmona and Pescara (that’s where the high mountains are), and another in the opposite direction towards Terni and Rieti.
This is a non-electrified part of the Italian rail network, and the trains – actually more buses-on-rails: single-unit rail cars with integrated engines and passenger compartments – make you feel that you have stepped into a land where time has stopped many decades ago.
You can stagger your journey: tickets remain valid for 4 hours after you have stamped them at the station. This means that you can get out of the train and continue your journey on the next one whenever you like, putting in one or even several such stopovers if you manage to keep them short.
We took the western route out of L’Aquila and descended at Citta Ducale. From the train station to the town centre, you have to walk through the countryside for approx. 1 km.
Take the straight road out of the station, turn right at the intersection and walk left up the stairs on the next hill. This will lead you to the town centre.
Citta Ducale itself is a small Italian country town from central casting …
… embedded in the rolling hills of the surrounding countryside, which is never far away.
On our way back to L’Aquila, we stopped at Antrodoco, which was built in the shadows of the mighty Monte Giano (with an altitude of 1800 metres, the highest peak in this part of the Abruzzi).
In comparison with Cittaducale, Antrodoco is bigger and feels a lot busier. With a relatively wide choice of restaurants, it is also a better place to have lunch.
Climb up to the hill at the northeastern edge of the centre for some nice views over the town.
Keep your eyes open during the train journey: there are many things to discover! You don’t get to feast on the landscape in the same way that you would on a hike, but you get to taste its many different varieties, which is no bad thing.
On our return walk from Citta Ducale’s town centre to the train station, we discovered one possibility for a longer hike.
If you, at the end of the straight road that leads out of the train station, continue straight across the road instead of turning right towards town, you will join a trail that leads to the outskirts of Rieti.
We have not done this ourselves, so cannot tell you whether it’s worth it. But it certainly looks doable: based on the map in the information panel, the trail is no longer than approx. 5 km.
From Rieti, you will also have good transport connections (trains in roughly hourly intervals) and will not have to throw your fate into the hands of local bus operators.
Other seeing the peaks of Abruzzi, if you have based yourself in L’Aquila: what else is there to see? We will tell you all about that in next week’s post.
