Our second e-trip we dedicated it to a region of the Heart ... for origins and traditions that distinguish us. A dip in the traditions of childhood, which are never lost.
Often, we know our big cities well, perhaps leaving out the small villages that make up the soul of our beautiful country.
We decide to leave even if the weather forecast is not on our side: #Maggembre
An electric adventure to discover this region rich in history and culture (Ovidio, D'Annunzio, Croce, Silone etc. were born here) of villages with a desire to be reborn and with a mouth-watering gastronomic tradition.
Our 3 days out of town gave us:
wonderful landscapes, many emotions and made known to people with a big heart with an innate sense of hospitality.
Day 1 : Bologna - Villa Celiera - Cellino Attanasio
On Sunday Morning we leave Bologna with 80% of battery in the direction of Villa Celiera at the foot of the Gran Sasso Park for the "classic" Abruzzo Sunday lunch.
Our car recommends a stop of 20 minutes to arrive at your destination with 16% autonomy; it is the first time that we go to these beautiful areas and we have tried a bit of "range anxiety", therefore in order to obtain a greater autonomy we decide in complete tranquility to recharge at the Supercharger in Fano another 20 minutes up to 95% .
During the supercharger break that houses the high-speed charging stalls on the parking lot of a hotel, we take the opportunity to have breakfast at the Orchidea artisan pastry shop (on the back). Kindness and professionalism never hurt.
We arrive on time (1.30pm) or almost ...
Villa Celiera (714 meters above sea level) is a village of about seven hundred souls and at lunchtime we are the only ones wandering around ... Giacomino the owner of the restaurant "Li sitaccir" immediately recognizes our car, shows us where to park and in the meantime he goes to buy bread strictly wood-fired at the Forno del Paese. We decided to have lunch here not by chance! We are foodies and we love out-of-the-ordinary places; in this place the menu actually exists but it is not the customer who chooses the dishes. The dishes are all typical Abruzzo traditions "Li ricett de Mamm" prepared with ingredients that come from small local producers "sifted" carefully by Giacomino and his "collaborators".
The photos speak for themselves, in the appetizers we tasted excellent local pecorino, the "Ventricina", "liver sausages" and a typical salami in lard. All accompanied with a wonderful fragrant bread.
Enjoying her French fries took us back 20 years, just like our grandmothers made them at home. Strictly red mountain potatoes.
Spontaneous herbs with unpronounceable names are served with boiled beans, fried salted sardines and small pieces of crunchy sweet pepper. A delight!
The "cacio e ova" meatballs arrived just before the ravioli with ricotta simply to scream and the arrosticini could not be missing.
In the video you will discover the true story of these simply wonderful sheep meat skewers. Giacomino will prepare them with the sprigs of dogwood a heat-resistant shrub by cutting the best sheep meat with a knife with perfect cooking in the ancient fireplace.
The beauty is that for every dish there is always a story to tell and Giacomino is a tireless host who never ceases to amaze us.
The excellent tart with cherry jam and the inevitable authentic gentian grappa reminds us that the lavish lunch has come to an end. Another crumb and we burst ... In Abruzzo: "Sting pe schiattà "
The guests of "Li Sitaccir" are simple customers but looking for authentic cuisine that is increasingly rare. In the showcase there is no shortage of famous customers and not to boast but He wanted to take a picture with us ;-)
The storm has passed and with this view we leave the restaurant to resume our journey towards Cellino Attanasio (Province of Teramo) where we will stay overnight.
Along the way we come across one of the most beautiful villages in Italy: Penne (province of Pescara) where we decide to walk in the beautiful alleys of the town and have a coffee before leaving.
Worth noting is the nature trail that connects the urban center (Fonte Nuova) to the Lago di Penne nature reserve where the WWF has established the otter reproduction center.
Thanks to our partner platform Ecobnb we have selected a splendid B&B surrounded by nature "Panfilo Farmhouse" where Lino and Annamaria welcome us and let us visit their company.
They tell us that their life has recently been revolutionized ... Lino was a farmer and tired of the low prices at which to sell the precious milk of his cows, he decided to sell the cows and renovate the barn by converting it into an Agriturismo.
They only have 3 tastefully decorated and brand new rooms. We inaugurated their new electrical system by recharging our Tesla under the beautiful porch that surely previously housed the hay bales.
At the farmhouse there is no TV and in the absolute calm of nature it is wonderful to enjoy relaxing on the terrace reading a good book and if you are a tobacco lover like us maybe smoking a good cigar while listening to the cries of poultry animals (geese, chickens etc.) and the beautiful pony named Furia.
Day 2 : Atri - Pineto - Montelapiano - Casacanditella
Our alarm clock this morning was the rooster from Panfilo's house (it would be nice to wake up every day like this) .. The sun is on our side and the temperature is perfect for enjoying a good breakfast in short sleeves. In reality, as soon as we meet Annamaria we discover that it is a brunch with genuine and authentic flavors beyond our expectations.
Just 15 minutes from Cellino Attanasio stands Atri a beautiful village full of life. Just outside the town it is possible to admire the wonderful calanques. The Nature Reserve has a path that is always open and can be visited without tickets or entrance times.
In the morning we did some shopping for typical products at the Earth market and brought home some excellent local cheeses.
The day passes quickly and we decide to stop for an aperitif break on the Pineto beach which owes its name to the beautiful pine forest that precedes the strip of sand where there are some establishments that reopen timidly for the season.
The most adventurous part of the journey awaits us. We decided to go further south and visit Montelapiano (Chieti) the smallest village in Abruzzo.
In Montelapiano 78 inhabitants live at the foot of Monte Vecchio (1061 m) with a landscape of beautiful pastures and meadows.
For an oversight, our navigator offers us a panoramic route: at one point we found ourselves on an ancient "sheep track for transhumance" but this is also the beauty of the journey.
The unusual detour made us discover Pennadomo a village perched on a cliff in the middle Valle del Sangro. "Perennial Challenge between Man and Nature" is the welcome sign!
In 2015, to avoid depopulation, a beautiful project was launched that allowed the village to be restored and the first eco-village resort is being created.
As you look, many blades of rock and pinnacles rise all around and not far away, in the Sangro valley, you can see Lake Bomba, which from this angle shows the blue of its splendid inlet.
Our day ends with an overnight stay in a magical place, the Castello di Semivicoli, an estate of the renowned producer of Montepulciano Masciarelli. The Castle is actually a baronial palace dating back to the 18th century. owned by Count Perticone. The house was the diplomatic and commercial point of reference in the area where wheat, olives, grapes and tobacco were produced. In 2004, the Masciarelli family bought the castle, starting a conservative restoration that restored luster to the house, now a wine resort and destination wedding.
Day 3: Fossacesia - Costa dei Trabocchi - Silvi Paese
Breakfast at the Semivicoli Castle is a blast from the past. Starting the day with delicacies served in the ancient kitchens is simply a once in a lifetime experience.
We move back to the coast and decide to relax a bit in the stretch that from Ortona to Vasto is better known as Costa dei Trabocchi (in Italian Trabucco).
The trabocco, or trabucco, is an imposing construction widespread both in Abruzzo and in the north of Puglia made of structural wood that consists of a platform jutting out into the sea anchored to the rock by large trunks of Aleppo pine, from which they extend, suspended a few meters from the water, two (or more) long arms, called antennas, which support an enormous tight-meshed net called trap.
The original Abruzzo typology, technically called scales, often rises on shallower coasts and is therefore characterized by the presence of a platform in a transverse position with respect to the coast, to which it is connected by a bridge consisting of wooden platforms, furthermore the scales have a winch only. A "green" fishing method that has become a World Heritage Site.
To delight our palate we have selected a noteworthy little place "L'angolino di Filippo 1891" a few kilometers from San Vito Chietino. The restaurant is a certainty just a few steps from an overflow of fishermen who celebrate the sea by reinterpreting tradition with creativity. The photos also speak for themselves here. Excellent quality, price and professionalism. Well done and congratulations for the choice of raw materials at Km0!
Immediately after lunch we head to Fossacesia (Chieti) which in the ninth century was an ancient monastic court of the Benedictines of Farfa. The inhabited center develops around the abbey of San Giovanni in Venere with a beautiful view overlooking the Adriatic coast.
Inside there is a beautiful temporary exhibition dedicated to San Gabriel: "the saint" par excellence of all the people of Abruzzo.
In the late afternoon we decide to load the car at the Pescara Supercharger (actually located in San Giovanni Teatino) which is very convenient along the route we have chosen.
We didn't miss the rush hour traffic in a city, but we just need to pass Montesilvano to breathe the air of relaxation again.
5 minutes from Montesilvano there is Silvi Marina where the Torre di Cerrano stands out, one of the ancient coastal towers of the Kingdom of Naples, owes its name to the nearby Cerrano stream (the ancient Matrinus), whose name in turn probably derives from that of the goddess Ceres.
The historic center of Silvi is also called Silvi Alta or Silvi Paese. It is here that at 7.00 pm we have an appointment with Ginevra, an excellent hostess who hosts us in one of the rooms that she has renovated in the beautiful hamlet overlooking the sea.
We spend the night in his Relais Borgo sul Mare where in the evening we can enjoy the reflections of the full moon directly from the balcony of the structure.
The building that houses us is the result of a careful building restoration has 4 rooms each bearing the name of a wind (each wind blows in the exact position in which it is marked). The building stands in the pretty little square of the town and is the ancient residence of Geneva's grandfather: Giovannino known as "the Friar" who married Carmela after many adventures, a daughter of a local fisherman.
Giovannino emigrated to the United States where he made his fortune and once he returned to his homeland he managed to build this beautiful house.
This structure was also carefully selected on the partner portal Ecobnb because it is environmentally aware and positioned outside the classic mass tourism destinations.
Ginevra bursting with energy from all pores, she explains to us that she is part of the tourism consultancy and takes care with great determination of the relaunch of her Antico Borgo Marinaro where she left her heart.
In any case, the landscape architect who is taking care of the restoration of the Borgo in collaboration with the Municipality has hit the mark!
The peace and tranquility that you breathe is truly unique and in the streets of the village you can buy terracotta souvenirs and excellent local products.
In the evening we take the opportunity to redo a trip to Atri (just 15 minutes) where we witness the feast of Santa Rita very much felt by the whole country. During the blessing, rose petals rain from the balconies ... An elderly citizen belonging to the organizing committee while we were seated at a bar table two days earlier revealed the program to us and we could not miss it. 😉
Surprising Abruzzo that the cliché has meant motionless for centuries and instead is always changing. A region that has so much and everything different: snow-capped mountains and gentle hills, beaches and rocky coasts, cities of cold and heat, grazing and wild animals, fish traditions and exquisite meat preparations. We invite you to stay away from commonplaces and visit these hidden corners where you can breathe a young desire to re-emerge, revive the ancient villages and welcome the people who will be able to grasp the essence of the real journey ...
"Abruzzo is as beautiful as mom"! Come and find out why ...
The summary of the Journey with emotions in Real Time as always is on Instagram
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