Barrea

Barrea sits at 1,066 meters on a spur at the heart of the Parco Nazionale d'Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise, looking down on Lago di Barrea, the lake created in 1951 by damming the Sangro river. The lake is 5 kilometers long, 980 meters above sea level, and the most photographed body of water in inland Abruzzo. The village descends from the pre-Roman Samnites, whose Colleciglio necropolis just outside the town has produced funeral artifacts from the 6th-7th century BC, now in a small museum opened in 2007.

The medieval centro storico is a fortified knot of stone houses and narrow streets. The Chiesa di San Tommaso Apostolo was first built in the 13th century, repeatedly destroyed by earthquakes, fires, and war, and rebuilt with a baroque-stuccoed interior. The original castle, built in the 11th century by the di Sangro family who held the fief, stands just outside the village with towers and walls intact.

Roughly 700 people remain. The park around them holds the largest population of Marsican brown bear and Apennine wolf in Italy.

From Naples / Salerno (NAP), about 2h 12m by car.

Rome (FCO) is about 3 hours away.

By car from the centre of Pescara 2 hours or Naples 2h 16m.