Picinisco

Picinisco occupies a fortified spur inside the Parco Nazionale d'Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise, looking down on the Val di Comino below. The village itself divides along the slope: a lower piazza gives onto the narrow streets of the centro storico, which climb toward the castle ruins at the top, the point originally built to hold the eastern approach to the valley. The parish church sits higher up, its baroque interior resting on medieval foundations, a layering repeated in the castle and the streets around it.

The food still defines the place. Pecorino di Picinisco DOP comes from raw sheep milk produced on the pastures above the village, and the valley also holds Maturano, a white grape almost extinct before the I Ciacca winery, founded by returning Scots-Italians, restarted it. That last detail closes a loop that runs through the whole town: the same families who left for Glasgow and Edinburgh through the last century are the ones who came back to put the valley's own wine back into production.