I usually walk alone, but was curious to try a group expedition. And so I signed up for a six-day guided hike in Abruzzo with the Compagnia dei Cammini. Walking as part of a group, with a guide, is much more relaxing - no worries about whether you're on the right path, where to spend the night, where to get something to eat: it's all planned in advance, and the guide takes you there. All you have to do is put one foot in front of the other!
There were eleven people in our group, plus the guide, and we were lucky to have a great group, all compatible in personality and pace. Our expedition was a fairly easy one, according to the classification system used by the Compagnia dei Cammini: 5 to 7 hours or 15 to 20 km of walking per day, dinner and accommodations in a B&B or agriturismo rather than carrying a tent and setting up camp at the end of the day. Such accommodations are not available everywhere in Abruzzo, though, the way they are in Tuscany or Liguria, and in fact our guide reported that he had constructed the route partly on the basis of the available accommodations. And what accommodations - we were treated to a feast every single night, whether it was a selection of pizzas topped with home-grown vegetables, homemade pasta made with a rare local variety of wheat that can only be grown at elevations about a thousand metres, or a twenty-course meal prepared with wild herbs and flowers. Our hosts were all interesting characters, and perhaps the highlight of our trip was meeting "Paolino" - Paolo Sanelli, the 90-year-old author of the book our guide had been reading aloud to us during breaks along the way all week.
I still love travelling and walking alone, but I think that once a year it would be great to spend a week with the Compagnia dei Cammini - or another similar group - especially to find out about parts of the country I don't know anything about, such as Abruzzo. The region was a great discovery for me.
I started out with a day in L'Aquila before meeting up with the rest of the group. A day in L'Aquila is an emotional roller-coaster. Seeing how much damage an earthquake can do. And how hard people are working to get the city back on its feet again. Walking down deserted streets where bushes have grown up right in the middle of the road - to quite a height, seven years after the quake. Accidentally coming across the site of the student dorms that collapsed around the sleeping students on the night of the earthquake. Seeing houses abandoned seven years ago, with the furniture still inside and the doors left open. And right next door, other buildings that have been repaired, and families have moved back in. My bed-and-breakfast was right on the edge of the "zona rossa", the no-go zone where you can walk through the streets but you cannot enter the buildings. When I arrived on Friday afternoon the whole city centre was one big construction site, a forest of cranes buzzing, turning and beeping; at 5:30 a whole army of construction workers poured out, all happy because it was Friday night and Italy had just won the football game!
Deserted streets in L'Aquila city centre
A variety of systems are used to prop up earthquake-damaged buildings
On Saturday afternoon our group of twelve met at the bus station in L'Aquila and moved to our first night's accommodations in the nearby village of San Demetrio nei Vestini. As an introduction to the week of walking we took a short stroll to the nearby lake called Lago Sinizzo, where our guide Luca Giannotti introduced us to his philosophy of walking (explained at length in his book L'Arte del Camminare) and talked about practical matters such as how we would be organising our days and what sort of socks to wear. He illustrated the applications of his first-aid kit consisting entirely of herbal remedies (there wasn't even an aspirin in it!) and on the way back to our hotel he introduced us to some of the wild plants that grow by roads and paths in the region of Abruzzo, including parsnips (which I had been seeking in vain for years in Italian vegetable markets!) and absinthe (which he advised us not to drink, but to pick along the way to rub and sniff for an instant energy boost).
Absinthe - also known as the traveller's herb, for its ability to provide instant energy
Our first day of hiking was one of the best. From San Demetrio we headed uphill through the hamlet of San Giovanni, largely abandoned even before the 2009 earthquake, and onto the Regio Tratturo. This was is a tract of land 110 metres wide which in the days of Aragon rule was made a public highway for the passage of shepherds with their flocks who practiced transhumance: a yearly migration from Abruzzo to spend the winter at lower elevations farther south in Puglia, and back into the mountains of Abruzzo in the spring.
On our way along this stretch of the Tratturo Magno, which was the main path of the transhumance, with other, smaller routes branching off of it, we came across a lot of mistletoe, and the ruins of the Roman city of Peltuinum, abandoned after an earthquake in A.D. 500.
Mistletoe
Passing the ruins of the Roman town of Peltuinum
After a lunch stop under gathering clouds in the seemingly deserted village of Tussio (pop. 94, we asked the only inhabitant we met!), our hike continued uphill through a forest, emerging on the other side in what appeared to be Scotland - mist, rain, and a ruined castle on a hill. The castle of Bominaco. We didn't take a side trip to see it up close, as it was raining, but headed on to our next stop, at the twin churches of San Pellegrino and Santa Maria. The former beautifully frescoed in the 13th century with stories from the Bible and an illustrated calendar, covering every inch of its interior, from ceiling to floor.
San Pellegrino
San Pellegrino - illustrated calendar
And the nearby church of Santa Maria, every bit as beautiful as the Abbey of Sant'Antimo in Montalcino, but unknown to tourists, deserted and locked up - you have to call the guardians who live next door and ask them to come with the key!
Santa Maria
After viewing the two churches we ventured back out into the rain for the final descent to Caporciano, arriving at "Agriturismo 4A" soaking wet! The owners Marina and her daughter Antonella set a fire going to dry out our clothes and served us hot tea with home-made "nutella" and ricotta and a loaf of homemade bread - heaven!!! But our afternoon snack was only a prelude to the evening meal - twenty different dishes, all made with home-grown ingredients, cheese made from the milk of the family's cows, and wild herbs and flowers.
Pastry cornets filled with homemade cheese,
borrage flowers, cornflowers and poppies
The second day of hiking took us back onto the Regio Tratturo and to the beautiful village of Navelli, largely abandoned even before the earthquake.
Navelli
After a lunch break here we continued up and down over rolling hills to Capestrano, and our accommodations in monks' cells in the monastery of San Giovanni di Capestrano. Once again we arrived soaking wet! But soon the sun came out again, and after changing into dry things and resting we walked down the road into the village, where we dined in a restaurant next to the fortress that is the town's main attraction.
Capestrano
Group photo in the fortress, by Angelo
Capestrano is, like l'Aquila, a hive of reconstruction activity. And on this occasion, also reconstruction of Orietta's shoes! Orietta, my roommate whenever we had double rooms, was very proud of her hiking boots - a real bargain from the fair in Verona! - until the soles and the uppers began to part company on the second day of our hike. Luckily, the village of Capestrano is home to a renowned shoemaker, Giannino, age 96. Giannino gets up at 6:30 every morning so it was no problem for him to have Orietta's boots repaired and ready to go by breakfast!
Capestrano - The view from the fortress
In the monastery
The hall to our cells
Leaving Capestrano in the morning
The next day's route took us from Capestrano down into the valley to the fresh waters of a spring, Sorgente Capolacqua, and then up to an elevation of 1000 metres at the pass called Forca di Penne, once again on the transhumance route of the Tratturo Magno. We stopped here for lunch and then proceeded along the crest of the hills, with a view all the way to the Adriatic Sea, to our next stopping place, Agriturismo Laperegina, above the village of Corvara. Snacking on cherries from abandoned cherry trees in the woods all along the way - sweet red cherries, sour cherries, and the black cherries known as visciole from which the locals make traditional desserts.
Noemi at Forca di Penne
Cherry break!
The view from Agriturismo Laperegina
The following morning we left the village of Corvara behind and descended to an elevation of 558 metres.
Leaving Laperegina behind in the morning
We passed by the village of Pescosansonesco, largely abandoned after an earthquake in 1908 followed by a landslide that carried half of the old village down into the valley in 1934.
Pescosansonesco Vecchio
Below the village we stopped at the "Roman fountain". Luckily for walkers, fountains abound in Abruzzo - from beautiful carved fountains like this one to basic holes in the rock - and we never had any trouble finding fresh water to refill our bottles throughout the day.
"Fonte Romana" in Pescosansonesco
By lunch time we were in Torre dei Passeri, the first big town we had come across since leaving L'Aquila. Big enough to have a supermarket! The selection of groceries was overwhelming after three days of shopping for our lunches in tiny village shops - and we had to be careful to avoid the temptation to buy too much food to carry! Though we were all ready for lunch, our guide wouldn't let us stop to eat yet, but hurried us along to the abbey of San Clemente in Casauria, just outside Torre dei Passeri. A truly lovely place.
The Abbey of San Clemente in Casauria
We just had time to visit the church, and not even enough time to investigate the Roman excavations nearby, before hurrying back down to the town and catching a train - only one stop, just to avoid walking a few kilometres along a busy road. When we got off the train we reached the river Orta, where we took off our boots, rolled up our trousers and forded the river before stopping to eat our picnic lunch on the riverbank. After lunch a steep scramble up the hill through the woods awaited us, one of the more challenging moments in the hike! From here we continued up hill, but on the roadside, to the town of San Valentino in Abruzzo Citeriore, a long-winded name for - the home of the best ice cream in Abruzzo!
Ice cream stop!
After a lovely dinner and a good night's rest in the luxury of the Hotel Panorama, we started day 5 of our expedition with a 15-minute bus ride to Caramanico, a town known for its hot springs.
Caramanico
But we were not there to take the waters, and after buying provisions for our lunch from the village shops, we set off into Maiella National Park, along a magical trail through the forest up the Orfento Valley and then up the hill to the village of Decontra.
La Valle dell'Orfento
Giglio di San Giovanni - St. John's Lily
On the path to Decontra
After picnicking in the garden of Agriturismo Pietrantica, we left our backpacks there and went for an afternoon expedition to the Hermitage of San Bartolomeo. Can you see the hermitage, a small church carved out of the rock wedged into the cliff slightly to the left of centre in the photo below? It is in a truly hard-to-reach spot: we had to descend to the bottom of the ravine then climb halfway up the other side. Visitors coming to the hermitage from Roccamorice on the other side of the ravine come down a steep staircase which passes through a hole in the rock. This is where the 13th century hermit Pietro di Morrone retired to be alone to meditate and pray - but as he gained more and more followers, too many people were coming to bother him here, and so he moved to an even more remote location, the hermitage of San Giovanni in Orfento. All this was before he was elected Pope Celestino V - the only pope before Benedict to renounce the papacy.
Eremo di San Bartolomeo
From the hermitage we had the unwise idea of trying to take a different route back, which turned out not to exist, or rather, to have been closed due to a collapsed bridge - so that after several kilometres walking along a paved road we had to turn around and come back the way we had gone. And arrived exhausted for dinner - a vegetable soup with pasta made from Solina wheat, an ancient local variety that can only be grown in the mountains, above 1000 metres.
Piancozze: Marisa's homemade solina wheat pasta
Apart from the soup, the highlight of our time in Decontra was meeting Paolo Sanelli, the "Paolino" whose book our guide Luca had been reading to us all week. Agriturismo Pietrantica is run by Paolino's daughter-in-law Marisa, and Paolino joined us for dinner and again for breakfast in the morning. It was enchanting to hear him tell some of the stories we had read in his book, in more detail! And now, when I go back to read snippets of the book again, I hear it in the author's own voice.
Luca finished reading Paolino's book, Tutti i miei sogni sono stati sulla Maiella - translated and published in English as All my dreams have been on the Maiella - the next day as we left Decontra and climbed more than 1100 metres up the flank of the mountain, the Maiella itself, then down more than 1200 metres on the other side.
In this picture, we are listening to Luca read the chapter entitled "La Qualifica". But you can hear Paolino himself tell the story here:
Of course I asked him to sign my copy of his book while we were in Decontra, and his grandson - also called Paolino - took a picture of us together. I will print it and tuck it into the book - a great souvenir of a wonderful week in Abruzzo, a region of Italy where tourism is virtually unknown, a region which deserves a lot more attention and a lot more visitors than it gets!
