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00 Pescasseroli
Stemma di Pescasseroli

Abruzzo · L'Aquila

Pescasseroli

At 1,167 meters at the head of the Sangro valley, capital of Italy's oldest national park and birthplace of Benedetto Croce.

Best time
Jun–Sep, Dec–Mar
By car
1 h 37 min from Pescara
Population
2,068

Known for

  • FIRST PARK

    Capital of the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park, established 1922 as Italy's first national park, the work of Erminio Sipari.

  • BENEDETTO CROCE

    The philosopher was born in Palazzo Sipari in February 1866, in the family home of his maternal grandfather Pietrantonio Sipari.

  • MARSICAN BEAR

    The park protects roughly fifty surviving Marsican brown bears, a subspecies of the Apennines found nowhere else on Earth.

When to visit

Best · Jun–Sep, Dec–Mar

  • J6°
  • F8°
  • M8°
  • A11°
  • M16°
  • J21°
  • J25°
  • A24°
  • S19°
  • O15°
  • N10°
  • D7°
  • Best
  • Hot or crowded
  • Quiet
  • Mostly closed

Daytime averages, 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.

Why come

Pescasseroli sits at 1,167 meters at the head of the upper Sangro valley, the administrative heart of the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park. The park was provisionally established in 1922 and confirmed in 1923, making it the first national park in Italy and one of the earliest in the world. The philosopher Benedetto Croce was born here in February 1866 in the Palazzo Sipari, the family house his grandfather Pietrantonio expanded in 1839.

The park itself was largely the work of Erminio Sipari, Croce's cousin, an environmentalist and member of parliament. The park protects roughly fifty Marsican brown bears, a subspecies found nowhere else, along with Apennine wolves and Abruzzo chamois. The Centro Visita on the edge of town holds a naturalistic museum, an Apennine garden, and an enclosure for injured wildlife. In winter, Pescasseroli is the southernmost serious ski town in the central Apennines.

The Sunday letter

Pescasseroli is on our list. Its letter is still to come.

We are writing about all 1,000 of these towns, one at a time, in a free letter every Sunday: the photo, the food, the festa. That is our mission. Sign up and you will be there when Pescasseroli comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Turin.

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Read on

Pescasseroli in our articles

How to get there

From Naples / Salerno (NAP), about 2 hours by car.

Rome (FCO) is about 2h 40m away.

By car from the centre of Pescara 1h 37m or Naples 2h 11m.

Pescasseroli, photo 1
Pescasseroli, photo 2

What to see

  • Palazzo Sipari

    Birthplace of Benedetto Croce in 1866, now a historic house museum, with the family balcony from which Croce wrote of his Pescasseroli.

  • Centro Visita del Parco

    Park headquarters with naturalistic museum, Apennine garden, and enclosures for Marsican brown bears, Apennine wolves and roe deer.

  • Chiesa di San Paolo Apostolo

    Parish church of Pescasseroli, with a 13th-century wooden Madonna and Child known as the Madonna Nera, locally venerated.

  • Monti Marsicani

    Surrounding mountain range with trails from town to Monte Marsicano at 2,245 meters, prime habitat for the Marsican brown bear.

  • Pescasseroli ski area

    Modest ski domain on Monte Ceraso and Monte Vitelle, the southernmost regular alpine ski operation in the central Apennines.

The slow-trip planner

Building a trip? Find where Pescasseroli fits in a slow Italy circuit.

Answer five questions. We will shape a geographically coherent slow trip from the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Yours to save and share.

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Living here

  • Population 2,068, down 9% since 2015
  • Remotei
  • Pharmacy: none mapped
  • Nearest high school over ~30 minutes away
  • Nearest public hospital Sora, 20 km as the crow flies
  • Full fibre reaches 98% of homes
  • Primary school in the comune
  • Earthquake zone 1, Italy's highest hazard
  • Nearest airport Naples / Salerno, 2 h 6 min drive
  • Regional capital L'Aquila, 1 h 24 min drive

Could you live here?

Pescasseroli is at the end of the road.

  • A village of 2,068. The nearest town of 5,000 people, Trasacco, is 43 minutes away: past our 15-minute rule, which makes this the end of the road.
  • Isernia, a city of 20,617, is 1 h 14 min by car. Further than our 30 to 60 minutes, a long way for the hospital visit or the monthly shopping.

The rules come from our series Where to Move in Italy, written from the places we have lived: Part 1, The End of the Road · Part 2, The Small Town · Part 3, The City. The rest of the series, and the best towns to move to, arrive in the Sunday letter.

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Common questions

What is Pescasseroli known for?
At 1,167 meters at the head of the Sangro valley, capital of Italy's oldest national park and birthplace of Benedetto Croce.
Where is Pescasseroli?
Pescasseroli is a comune in the province of L'Aquila, in Abruzzo, at 1167 meters above sea level.
What is the nearest airport to Pescasseroli?
Naples / Salerno (NAP), about 2 hours by car.
How long is the drive from Pescara to Pescasseroli?
About 1h 37m by car.
When is the best time to visit Pescasseroli?
Best in Jun–Sep, Dec–Mar. July is the warmest month, averaging 25 degrees, and May the wettest, with about 19 rain days.
Which other towns are like Pescasseroli?
Scanno, Falcade and Moena.
How many people live in Pescasseroli?
2,068 at the 2023 count.
Is Pescasseroli a good place to live?
By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Pescasseroli is at the end of the road: the nearest town of 5,000 people, Trasacco, is 43 minutes away. The nearest city, Isernia, is 1 h 14 min away by car. The nearest public hospital is in Sora, 20 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 98% of homes.
Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

The numbers

  • Elevation: 1167 m
  • Population: 2,068
  • Surface area: 91.17 km²

These figures were compiled from public directories: ISTAT, OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.

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