Penne, Loreto Aprutino, Pianella, Tocco da Casauria are serene and rugged villages at the same time, full of art and history; framed by ridges covered with olive trees and vineyards, and open towards the cobalt blue of the Adriatic Sea.
First day
Penne rises on a hill, where the view extends to the Gran Sasso. It is a village full of ups and downs, with splendid noble buildings. Of great interest are the Porta San Francesco from 1780; the Cathedral and the nearby Museum; the churches of Sant’Agostino, dell’Annunziata (among the most beautiful of the 18th-century Abruzzo), of San Giovanni Evangelista and San Domenico. A road about 5 km long descends from the village and leads to the Lake of Penne, which has become a Regional Nature Reserve, in whose 150 hectares several species of resident and migratory birds find refuge. Here, the WWF has also created an Oasis, where foxes, badgers, wild boars, martens, wild cats, skunks and weasels live.
There are also a Visitor Center, an Environmental Education center, a Botanical Garden, a Butterfly Garden, and an important otter repopulation center, the real attraction of the park, that adults and children can admire behind a glass when they dive into the clear waters of the lake, chasing each other and performing underwater acrobatics, a true spectacle! From Penne, following the hilly road, you reach Loreto Aprutino, considered the small capital of the Aprutino-Pescarese extra virgin olive oil PDO.
Of early medieval origins, the village preserves architectural treasures, such as the 14th-century church of San Pietro Apostolo, on the top of the hill; the Palazzo dei baroni Acerbo, with the largest collection of ancient Abruzzese ceramics; the 13th-century church of San Francesco and the Chiola Castle, transformed into a boutique hotel.
Second day
To the southeast of Loreto, still via the hilly road, you can reach the village of Pianella, which houses the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, built in the 12th century by Benedictine monks on a hill not far from the center. Outside stand out an elegant brick bell tower, the rose window, and the portal of Casauriense school. The interior instead shows a very rich pulpit in limestone, made by the master Acuto in the early 13th century and decorated with the symbols of the four evangelists.
To the southwest of Pianella, at San Clemente a Casauria, near the village of Tocco, nests the most famous abbey in Abruzzo, with very ancient origins: the foundation dates back to 871 AD. Plundered by Saracens and Normans, it was rebuilt at the end of the 12th century. The portal and the portico preserve extraordinary bas-reliefs. Also of great elegance are the pulpit, the altar derived from a Roman sarcophagus, and the crypt. San Clemente is also a historic place, where the Chronicon casauriense was written, considered a fundamental document for the knowledge of medieval Europe, and now kept in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.
