Tocco da Casauria

Tocco sits on a hill between the Pescara river and the Arolle stream, with the Maiella massif behind it. The town was founded around 872 under the authority of the abbey nearby, established in fulfilment of a vow made during an imprisonment in Benevento. The abbey held the relics of Pope Clement I.

The town was simply Tocco until 1861, when da Casauria was added to honour the abbey it grew up beside. The centro storico is dominated by the Caracciolo Castle, rebuilt in Renaissance style after the 1456 earthquake, while the lower slopes toward the Pescara valley carry olive groves and Montepulciano vines, the produce that earned the town its place among the Città dell'Olio and Città del Vino. Centerba, the high-proof liqueur made from a hundred Maiella herbs, has been distilled here since the mid-19th century by the Toro family. What holds the town together is the relationship between the abbey below and the settlement on the hill: a monastic foundation that gave the place its name, its early authority, and, centuries later, its liqueur trade and vineyards grew up in the valley it once governed.

From Ancona / Pescara (AOI), about 2h 22m by car.

Rome (FCO) is about 2h 42m away.

By car from the centre of Pescara 47 minutes or Ancona 2h 17m.

There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive without a car.

Coming from Rome?

Coming by train into Pescara Centrale? Tocco da Casauria is about 48 minutes away by road.