Visit Abruzzo Countryside: Italy’s Green Region Between the Mountains and the Sea
To visit the Abruzzo countryside is to discover one of the most naturally rich and least-spoiled regions in Italy — a territory of high Apennine peaks, ancient beech forests, river gorges, hill towns, and a short but spectacular Adriatic coastline, all within a region that has consistently prioritized the protection of its landscape over its development. Abruzzo has more national park territory per capita than any other region in Italy — the Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga, the Majella, and the Parco Nazionale d’Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise together cover a vast portion of the regional territory — and the countryside that surrounds and connects these protected areas is as rewarding to drive through as the parks themselves. This is a region where the roads are consistently empty, the villages consistently authentic, and the landscape consistently surprising.
The Gran Sasso: The Roof of the Apennines
The Gran Sasso massif dominates the northern part of Abruzzo — a ridge of limestone peaks that includes the Corno Grande at 2,912 meters, the highest point in the Apennines south of the Alps. The plateau of Campo Imperatore that extends below the northern face of the massif is one of the most extraordinary landscapes in central Italy: a high-altitude plain of 27 kilometers, used for centuries as summer grazing ground and now crossed by a single road that passes through a landscape of extraordinary openness and austerity. The medieval village of Santo Stefano di Sessanio, perched on the edge of the plateau, is one of the most perfectly preserved hill towns in the region — its stone houses and tower carefully restored without being sanitized, its population small and its atmosphere genuine.
The Majella: The Mountain of the Hermits
The Majella massif, in the central-southern part of Abruzzo, has a character distinct from the Gran Sasso — more rounded, more wooded, and historically associated with the hermit tradition that produced hundreds of rock-cut caves and small sanctuaries on its slopes between the 11th and 14th centuries. The Majella National Park protects not only the natural landscape but also this extraordinary concentration of medieval religious sites — the hermitages of Santo Spirito a Majella, Morrone, and San Giovanni in the gorge of the Sagittario are among the most atmospheric in the Apennines, their settings combining natural drama with historical resonance in ways that more accessible sites rarely achieve. The town of Sulmona, in the valley below the western flank of the Majella, is the most elegant city in the Abruzzo interior — a place of Renaissance palaces, medieval aqueduct, and the confetti industry that has made it famous across Italy.
The Hill Towns and the Food
The Abruzzo hill towns that dot the countryside between the two great massifs — Scanno, with its lake and its traditional costume; Pescocostanzo, perfectly preserved in its 16th-century form; Pacentro, overlooked by three Norman towers — are among the finest in central Italy and among the least visited. The food culture that sustains them is built on lamb, saffron from the plateau of Navelli, pecorino from the mountain pastures, chitarra pasta cut on a string instrument unique to the region, and the brodetto of the Adriatic coast. The montepulciano d’Abruzzo that accompanies it — deep-colored, full-bodied, produced from vineyards on the eastern hillsides between the mountains and the coast — is one of Italy’s great value red wines, consistently better than its price suggests.
Abruzzo Countryside on a Central Italy Self-Drive
A self-drive through the Abruzzo countryside connects naturally into a self-guided tour of central Italy that can extend south toward Molise and north toward the Marche and the Adriatic coast. Explore the full Abruzzo region to see how the countryside connects with the national parks and the coast, then contact our team to start planning, or learn more about how a self-guided tour works.
