The 6 best small towns that eat well in the province of L'Aquila
The high province of L'Aquila eats like a place that spends part of the year under snow. Mutton and lamb turned slowly over embers, arrosticini pushed off the skewer with bread, saffron from the Navelli plain going into risotto and into broth, ricotta and pecorino from flocks that still climb to summer pasture. The towns are built from pale limestone quarried nearby, with cut-stone doorways and cold squares that hold the shade until midday. Winter is the season the kitchens were designed for, though the mountain summer brings its own list: mushrooms, wild greens, chitarra pasta with a plain tomato sauce that tastes of the altitude.
Most people passing through stop in Sulmona, and there are reasons for it: the aqueduct along Piazza Garibaldi, the confetti shops, the Wednesday and Saturday market, an easy exit off the valley road. The old centre fills up on weekends and on any feast day, and the restaurants nearest the piazza work at volume. Coach parties come through on the way to or from the Gran Sasso and Campo Imperatore, which absorbs the rest of the region's visitors. It is a good town. It is also the only address in the province that many travellers write down.
The same shepherding country, the same saffron and the same stone continue up into the Altopiano delle Cinquemiglia and along the Sagittario gorge, and that is where these towns are. Fewer people eat here, but guide inspectors have found tables in each of them, in towns small enough to cross on foot in a few minutes. Some are ski towns that keep their restaurants open through August; others sit above a lake or at the mouth of a canyon. Worth a detour, and worth booking, because in places this size the good dining room is often the only one.
Of the 42 communes we have mapped in the province of L'Aquila, 10 qualify as towns that eat well: a national or international dining guide has named a table in each. This list is the small ones, 6 in all, ordered smallest first. The smallest, Rivisondoli, has 676 residents.
If you are still choosing, we have also written The best towns that eat well in the province of L'Aquila and The best small ski towns in the province of L'Aquila.
Rivisondoli
Why visit Rivisondoli
Rivisondoli sits on the flank of Monte Calvario, looking down at the plateau that runs north toward Roccaraso. The town was first recorded in 724 in a diploma of Grimoald II, Duke of Benevento, and grew in the 12th century along the Via degli Abruzzi, the military and trade route across the central Apennines.
It was once known for its weapons production. The 1792 fire destroyed most of the village, and the opening of the Sulmona-Isernia railway in the 19th century turned it toward tourism rather than trade.
The Italian royal family kept a residence here in 1913. Rivisondoli and Roccaraso face each other across the Cinque Miglia plateau, close enough that their ski slopes were joined into one domain and their names are now said together.
The older village, rebuilt twice, climbs one flank of the mountain while the plateau below stays open and treeless, the same ground that once slowed traders and caravans on the route through the Apennines. What began as a stop on a military road became, after fire and war remade the town twice, a place oriented instead toward winter visitors and a single night in January.
Da Giocondo have been named by a guide.
What to see in Rivisondoli
- Alto Sangro ski area. The lift network runs between 1,309 and 2,142 meters, joining Rivisondoli's slopes to Roccaraso's across the open plateau.
- Presepe Vivente. Hundreds of villagers in period costume take the hillside outside town for the performance, the cast spread across the open ground rather than a stage.
- Altopiano delle Cinque Miglia. Treeless and averaging 1,250 meters, the plateau in the Alto Sangro is prone to extreme winter winds, a stretch that historically caught travelers unprepared.
How to get to Rivisondoli
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Pescara is roughly 89 minutes away by road.
Our tip
December through March is the season the town runs on. The Alto Sangro lifts open, weekend numbers multiply, and the Cinque Miglia plateau north of town becomes the cross-country skiing route. The January 5 Presepe Vivente draws the biggest single crowd of the year.
Pescocostanzo
Why visit Pescocostanzo
Pescocostanzo sits at 1,395 meters at the southern edge of the Quarto Grande plateau, the high karst basin above the Sangro valley. The town was reshaped between 1456 and the eighteenth century under the Capua family and a generation of Lombard masons who arrived to build for them.
The plan is unusually regular for a mountain commune: a grid of stone houses oriented to the wind, surrounded by woods and pasture. The Collegiata di Santa Maria del Colle, restructured by Cosimo Fanzago in the seventeenth century, is one of the rare five-nave churches in Abruzzo.
Its wrought iron Chapel of the Sacrament gate, made by Sante di Rocco between 1699 and 1707, is the masterpiece of local ironwork. Bobbin lace, merletto al tombolo, is still made here.
The Museo del Merletto a Tombolo inside Palazzo Fanzago shows the technique and the patterns. Filigree gold, carved wood, and lace are still sold on the Corso Roma.
La Corniola, Essentia have been named by a guide.
What to see in Pescocostanzo
- Collegiata di Santa Maria del Colle. Five-nave church begun in the late Middle Ages and remodeled by Cosimo Fanzago in the seventeenth century.
- Museo del Merletto a Tombolo. Inside Palazzo Fanzago, displays the local bobbin lace tradition with patterns, tools, and live demonstrations.
- Palazzo Fanzago. Designed by the baroque architect Cosimo Fanzago in 1624, the seat of the lace museum and civic offices.
How to get to Pescocostanzo
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Pescara is roughly 84 minutes away by road.
Our tip
December through March brings snow and the ski season, with the Monte Calvario lifts linking to the Alto Sangro system at Roccaraso and Rivisondoli twenty minutes away. June through September is the second season. At 1,395 meters Pescocostanzo rarely crosses twenty-two degrees even in August, and the Bosco di Sant'Antonio offers beech-shaded walks.
Pacentro
Why visit Pacentro
Pacentro sits at 650 meters on a hill spur in the Peligna valley, eight kilometers from Sulmona and inside the Maiella National Park. The Castello Caldora, with its three surviving square towers, dominates the village from the Colle Castello above.
The site has held a castle since the eleventh century; the structure visible today was begun by the Caldora-Cantelmo family in the late fourteenth century and bought by the comune in 1957 and restored. On the first Sunday of September, the Corsa degli Zingari sends barefoot runners down a rocky slope from Monte Ardinghi into the village in honor of the Madonna di Loreto.
The race is documented since the fifteenth century. The other thing people come for is the Ciccone house.
Madonna's paternal grandparents, Gaetano Ciccone and Michelina Di Iulio, emigrated from Pacentro in 1919. The pop singer visited in 2013.
Taverna dei Caldora have been named by a guide.
What to see in Pacentro
- Castello Caldora-Cantelmo. Late fourteenth-century fortress on the Colle Castello, three of its four corner towers still standing, restored after 1957.
- Borgo medievale. Stone houses arranged on terraces below the castle, listed among the Borghi più belli d'Italia, preserved in its medieval plan.
- Chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore. Sixteenth-century parish church with a baroque interior, holding the Madonna di Loreto honored in the September race.
How to get to Pacentro
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Pescara is roughly 69 minutes away by road.
Our tip
May through October is when Pacentro opens. The first Sunday of September brings the Corsa degli Zingari and the biggest crowd of the year, with runners descending barefoot from Monte Ardinghi and the village in procession by evening. July and August can be warm in the valley but the elevation keeps Pacentro itself cooler than Sulmona below.
Ovindoli
Why visit Ovindoli
Ovindoli sits at 1,375 meters on the southern edge of the Altopiano delle Rocche, the karst plateau shared with Rocca di Mezzo, Rocca di Cambio and Rovere, inside the Sirente-Velino regional park. The town built itself around skiing.
Downhill became a serious draw after World War I, but the modern resort was organized in 1959 under the name Valturvema. Lifts opened in the 1961-62 season and the trails were expanded.
In 1994, new management renamed the operation Monte Magnola and modernized the lifts, the snowmaking, and the network. The ski area now runs from the village at 1,413 meters to the top of Monte Magnola at 2,056 meters, with about 30 kilometers of downhill, three triple chairlifts, two chairlifts, one cable car, four magic carpets and one drag lift.
It is part of the Skipass dei Parchi consortium with Campo Felice, Campo Imperatore and Grotte di Stiffe. Summer is hiking, mountain biking and horse-riding country.
Population is 1,167.
La Baracca, La Stozza have been named by a guide.
What to see in Ovindoli
- Monte Magnola. Ski station from 1,413 to 2,056 meters, 30 kilometers of downhill terrain on the slopes above Ovindoli, modernized in 1994.
- Altopiano delle Rocche. Karst plateau at 1,300-1,400 meters shared with Rocca di Mezzo, Rocca di Cambio and Rovere, the central terrain of the Sirente-Velino park.
- Parco Naturale Regionale Sirente-Velino. Regional park that surrounds the town, with high meadows, beech forests and trails toward the Sirente and Velino summits.
How to get to Ovindoli
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Pescara is roughly 78 minutes away by road.
Our tip
December through March is the ski season, the months Ovindoli was built around. The Monte Magnola lifts run, the town hotels fill on weekends, and the Skipass dei Parchi makes the village a hub for the four-station consortium. June through September is the second draw: at 1,375 meters the village stays cool through August, and the same plateaus that hold the skiers become trail-running, hiking and grazing country.
Roccaraso
Why visit Roccaraso
The town sits where the plateaus of Aremogna and Pizzalto meet the higher ground toward Monte Greco, the peak that anchors the whole range at 2,283 meters. The two plateaus are joined by lift, grazed and hiked in summer, cut into pistes in winter: the same trails serve both seasons under different cover.
Four kilometers uphill sits the older, smaller settlement, a medieval frazione that took the weight of the war the valley town below did not escape either. The Germans dug into the Gustav Line where it crossed through here, the Allies bombed in response, and the town below was leveled along with it.
What stands in Roccaraso now was rebuilt after that, stone by stone, from what the bombing left. The first ski lift on Monte Zurrone went up in 1936, years before any of it, and skiing resumed after the rebuilding and never really stopped.
The area has held its place as the south's ski capital since, though the snow line keeps rising: in January 2024 only twenty of Abruzzo's 122 pistes were open. A resort built twice, once by engineers before the war and once by survivors after it, still runs on the same slopes either way.
Chichibio have been named by a guide.
What to see in Roccaraso
- Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta. Baroque travertine façade, gilded walnut pulpit in the shape of a Greek cross, painted and gilded wooden organs.
- Pietransieri. Medieval frazione where the Limmari Massacre took place; the Gold Medal of Military Valour recognizes what its people lost that winter.
- Piano Aremogna. High pasture and ski terrain at 1,650 meters, the eastern flank of the Alto Sangro ski domain.
How to get to Roccaraso
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Pescara is roughly 94 minutes away by road.
Our tip
December through March is the season Roccaraso was built for. The Alto Sangro lifts open, the slopes fill, and the town doubles on weekends. June through September is the second season: 1,236 meters means temperatures rarely cross 23 degrees even in August, and the same plateaus that hold the lifts become hiking and pasture country.
Scanno
Why visit Scanno
Scanno sits in the Sagittario valley, ringed by the Majella foothills and the Marsicano massif. The lake lies three kilometers down the valley from the town, at a lower elevation, so the walk between them moves from stone alleys to open water framed by the same slopes that produced it: a landslide off the mountain dammed the Tasso river and left the basin behind.
The town's isolation, closed in by the surrounding massifs, is what let the older costume and its headdress survive into the era of the camera, and it is what drew photographers to record it rather than something they invented. The goldsmiths' filigree, made in the same stone streets the women walked, belongs to the same thread: a village shaped by its enclosure in the mountains, still making by hand what it has always made.
Terra dell'Albergo Centrale Scanno have been named by a guide.
What to see in Scanno
- Lago di Scanno. Seen from above, the water reads as a clean heart shape against the valley walls.
- Centro storico. Stone-alley medieval centre where the black costume, with its folded headdress some historians trace to Balkan or Eastern origins, is still worn by older women against limewashed walls.
- Chiesa di Santa Maria della Valle. Parish church first documented in the eleventh century, rebuilt in the seventeenth, with a Renaissance portal and Baroque interior.
How to get to Scanno
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Pescara is roughly 80 minutes away by road.
Our tip
June through September is the summer window: trails open in the national park, the lake holds a Blue Flag for swimming, and the centro fills with photographers chasing the Giacomelli setups. December through March is the second season for snow, with skiing on Monte Rotondo and Passo Godi nearby. April, May, October and November are quiet, with many family-run hotels closed and the lake side restaurants shuttered.
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