Travel To Abruzzo

Citadels and castles appear in the middle of woods and pastures, in the parks with some luck you can see brown bears, wolves and chamois, and eagles, hawks and buzzards on the highest peaks.

Abruzzo is the most protected region in Italy, with 28% of its territory designated as park land: the Abruzzo National Park, the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Parks, the Majella National Park, and the Sirente-Velino Regional Park.

The economy depends both on the commerce of agricultural products and on the growing craft sector (copper and wrought iron, lace, fabrics, wooden articles). The main agricultural areas are the pre-Apennine hills out near the coast, which produce mostly wheat, potatoes, vegetables, grapes, olives and fruit. Of importance are also the industrial crops of tobacco, sugar beets, saffron and liquorice.

The many artificial basins make the region the top producer of hydroelectric energy in the Apennines, which also has numerous methane and bauxite beds. Industry is mostly concentrated in the plains around Pescara, and Chieti and the main activities include electrochemical, electronics, paper and clothing.

The region has a varied cuisine combining fish based cooking with a more earthy cuisine. Shellfish, anchovies, mullet, octopus, cuttlefish are combined in the varied makings of brodetto (a peppery soup for which each port has its own version). Streams and lakes provide trout, eels and crayfish. The uplands of the Apennines produce outstanding artichokes, cardoons, beans, lentils and potatoes and the nation’s main supply of saffron. Typical of the area was la panarda, a meal of 30 to 40 courses eaten through a day, which, sadly, is no longer in vogue.

Abruzzo produces one DOCG, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Colline Teramano and three DOC wines, Contro Guerra, Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. The regional wines used to be little known abroad and misjudged as cheap, generic, supermarket varieties. As with many other Italian wine producing regions of the South, this is changing and the region is undergoing a gradual transition from bulk-wine production to boutique wines.