Themed picks · Pescara · Mountains
10 mountain comuni near Pescara
By Peter Benei
10 comuni · within 120 minutes of Pescara · drive times by road from the city center
The mountains behind Pescara are the Gran Sasso and the Maiella, and the villages on this list start about 70 minutes away by car. Castelvecchio Calvisio is the closest at 71 minutes, and for all of them you will want a car.
More in Abruzzo, or every way into the towns.
The towns
1L'Aquila · Abruzzo · 1 h 11 min from Pescara
Castelvecchio Calvisio
124 people at 1,067 meters, inside an oval of stone walls in the Gran Sasso park.
2L'Aquila · Abruzzo · 1 h 16 min from Pescara
Calascio
122 people under Rocca Calascio, the castle in Ladyhawke, at 1,200 meters.
3L'Aquila · Abruzzo · 1 h 16 min from Pescara
Villalago
At 930 meters above three lakes, the lowest on this list.
4L'Aquila · Abruzzo · 1 h 18 min from Pescara
Santo Stefano di Sessanio
At 1,250 meters, restored building by building into Italy's first scattered hotel.
5L'Aquila · Abruzzo · 1 h 19 min from Pescara
Ovindoli
The skiing: a working station on Monte Magnola since 1959, at 1,375 meters.
6L'Aquila · Abruzzo · 1 h 20 min from Pescara
Scanno
At 1,057 meters, the village Cartier-Bresson and Giacomelli photographed, with a heart-shaped lake.
7L'Aquila · Abruzzo · 1 h 22 min from Pescara
Campo di Giove
Under the Maiella at 1,064 meters, with ski slopes above the village.
We write letters from the Italian towns we visit: the town, what is worth eating there, and when to turn up. It is free, and you can leave whenever you like.
8L'Aquila · Abruzzo · 1 h 25 min from Pescara
Pescocostanzo
A Renaissance town at 1,395 meters, known for bobbin lace and wrought iron.
9L'Aquila · Abruzzo · 1 h 8 min from Pescara
Castel del Monte
At 1,346 meters, the capital of the shepherds, facing Rocca Calascio.
10Teramo · Abruzzo · 1 h 32 min from Pescara
Pietracamela
199 people under the Corno Piccolo, where Apennine climbing began in 1925.
About this stretch
Abruzzo holds two of the three Apennine national parks (Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga, and Maiella) and a third of its protected land, which is the highest share of any Italian region. The mountain country starts about 20 kilometers inland from the Adriatic and rises quickly: the Gran Sasso massif tops out at 2,912 meters, the highest peak in the Apennines, and the Maiella sits at 2,793 meters just south of it. Between and around the two parks, the mountain comuni hold the food the region is known for: the Navelli saffron (the most expensive in Italy by weight), the Santo Stefano di Sessanio lentils, the Castel del Monte pecorino, the Sulmona confetti.
Pescara is the right base for this trip because it is the only Adriatic city with rail and motorway access running directly into both parks. The A24 runs west into the Gran Sasso. The A25 runs southwest into the Maiella. Driving in, the lower comuni come up first and the higher villages take an hour and a quarter to two hours from the coast, on upper roads that switch back hard. Pescara itself is not the city to base in for sightseeing (it was rebuilt postwar and reads as a beach town), but its rail, airport (PSR) and motorway position make it functional in a way that the prettier inland towns are not.
We picked ten mountain comuni that show the range, ranked by their designations and by elevation, which gives weight to the high Borghi più belli (Santo Stefano di Sessanio, Castel del Monte, Pescocostanzo, Scanno), spread across the Gran Sasso, the Maiella and the lakes and passes around Scanno. Drive times below are by road from the center of Pescara. For rail, Sulmona is the hub for the southern Maiella; the villages themselves are a drive or a bus from there.
Why Pescara is the base
Pescara is the most under-rated transit hub in this list. The city itself is not a destination, but the airport (Abruzzo, IATA PSR), the rail (mainline to Bologna and Bari), and the two A-grade motorways (A14 along the coast, A24 and A25 inland) make it the only Abruzzo base from which both national parks are reachable for the day. The cooking on the coast (brodetto alla pescarese, the Adriatic fish stew) closes a loop with the heavier inland food (arrosticini, pecorino, the saffron-yellow chitarra pasta).
When to go
May through October for the mountain comuni: the snow clears late in the Gran Sasso (sometimes through April), the towns at 1,200+ meters only really open from late May, and the September lentil harvest and October chestnut sagre run into early November. July and August are the high mountain season (Campo Imperatore, Roccaraso) and the towns fill with Italian families. The Adriatic coast is at its summer peak then; combining a coast morning with an inland afternoon is the move.
Questions people ask
- What is the highest comune in Abruzzo?
- Rocca di Cambio at 1,433 meters, in the Sirente-Velino regional park west of L'Aquila. On this list, Pescocostanzo (1,395 m) in the Maiella and Ovindoli (1,375 m) are the highest, with Castel del Monte (1,346 m) and Santo Stefano di Sessanio (1,250 m) in the Gran Sasso close behind.
- Is the Gran Sasso accessible by car?
- Yes. The A24 motorway runs through the tunnel under the massif. From the Assergi exit, the Campo Imperatore plateau (the 'Little Tibet of Italy', 1,800 m, the highest plain in the Apennines) is reachable by paved road from June through October. In winter the upper road is closed but the lower comuni stay accessible.
- What is Navelli famous for?
- Saffron. The Navelli plain produces Italy's most expensive spice (the Zafferano dell'Aquila DOP), grown in a tight cluster of about a dozen comuni at 700 to 900 meters. The crocus blooms in late October; the picking and the drying happen in the first week of November.
- Are the Abruzzo national parks worth visiting if I do not hike?
- Yes. The Gran Sasso has the comuni at the edge of the park (Castel del Monte, Santo Stefano di Sessanio, Calascio with its rocca) which are walkable medieval towns at altitude. The Maiella has Pescocostanzo and Pacentro for the same kind of stay. The high plateaus and the harder hiking are optional, not mandatory.
How we picked these · We took every Abruzzo town in our catalogue within two hours of Pescara by car (71 of them), kept the 18 in high mountain country or at 800 meters or more that carry Borghi più belli, Parco Nazionale, Bandiera Arancione or Borghi Autentici, and ranked them by those designations, by elevation and by how close they are. The two-hour radius is deliberate: the inner Gran Sasso villages sit well up the A24 from the coast.
Keep browsing
