This tour is a unique experience and will introduce you in a relaxed way to real life in one of Italy's most spectacular but least known regions. The towering mountains of the Abruzzo are perhaps Italy's last frontier, with inaccessible hilltowns emerging from forests that still provide refuge to wolves and bears.  Once a power centre of the Florentines in their control of the annual transhumance migrations of the Abbruzzese shepherds with their flocks, it is now a place which will magically transport you back in time without renouncing any of life’s pleasures.  Excellent meals of local produce will be included, and the whole package will be threaded together with insights on history, art, architecture and contemporary life. And of course we will feel obliged to compare the local wines to those in our previous Italian tours.

In Abruzzo we stay  in the town of Sulmona for 3 nights in a four star hotel and then in a mountain top monastery for 3 nights.

Day 1   Sunday              Arrival                            o'night Sulmona  D

The tour begins in the hotel foyer at 5pm. (Arrive Sulmona from Rome -  a train departs Rome's Tiburtina station at 10.30am)  Welcome drinks and dinner in a local restaurant near the accommodation.

Day 2  Monday     Sulmona                     o'night Sulmona    B

Visit Sulmona, known in Roman times as Sulmo and hometown of the poet Ovid, which is now a graceful and picturesque town nestling at the foot of the impressive Maiella mountain range. Surrounded by almond forests, it is now famous for its brightly coloured almond based 'confetti', exported throughout Italy and the world. After lunch in the town we then pay a visit to the nearby ruins of the Roman Temple to Hercules Curino and the hermitage of Sant’Onofrio nestling in the cliffs above it, returning home via another Roman site at Corfinio.

Day 3  Tuesday               Scanno                     o'night Sulmona      B

Hidden away in a valley beyond turquoise mountain lakes lies the extraordinary town of Scanno, home to traditions of jewellery and distinctive costume that emerge from a distant past. Once almost inaccessible to the outside it has remained substantially untouched by time, its cobbled streets and picturesque roofs emerging from a primeval forest. Returning we pass a series of other spectacular hilltowns perched on crags overlooking the river Sagittario far below, and then stop in Cocullo, famous for its spring snake festival (May tour).

Day 4 Wednesday     Calascio Castle       o'night Monastery at Ocre  B D

Today we visit the extraordinary castle of Calascio and the nearby octagonal church in what can only be described as an exhilarating setting. Lunch at Calascio (not included). In the afternoon a visit to Campo Imperatore, a glacier flattened valley in the shadow of the peak of Gran Sasso, continental Italy's tallest mountain south of the alps, and the place where Mussolini was imprisoned prior to his “rescue” by the Germans in 1943. Dinner in the monastery dining room.

Day 5 Thursday       Transumanza Walk    o'night Monastery at Ocre  B D

The transumanza is the traditional twice yearly migration of sheep and cows from the highlands to the lowlands which has dominated the life of this region, often too high for traditional agriculture, since time immemorial. many towns in this area were established by the Florentines in the 15th Century to guard the supply of wool on which their wealth and power depended, and is thus in the centre of a network of these trails which now provide an ideal opportunity to see the countryside up close.  Dinner in the monastery dining room.

Day 6   Friday   Cooking Class, Peltuinum & Navelli  o'night Monastery    B L D

A cooking class this morning with some local women or if you prefer enjoy some free time exploring the town of Santo Stefano. Lunch is included in the day. In the afternoon we go down to the valley to the Roman ruins of the city of Peltuinum and then visit the picturesque town of Navelli. Farewell drinks and dinner tonight in the monastery dining room.

Day 7  Saturday              Departure - Sulmona train station at 10am  B