Heading High In The Apennine Mountains

Rocca Calascio - high in the Apennine Mountains in Abruzzo Italy.jpg

Seeking The Highest Point in Abruzzo High In The Apennine Mountains

Leaving Pescara for the day, we headed for the highest point in Abruzzo in the Apennine Mountains. On this day trip, we ansi wanted to visit the high town of Rocca Calascio. But we knew there would be lots of interesting stops along the way.

Our Route To The Apennine Mountains

We took the A24 towards Rome. After the 10km long tunnel bored through the Gran Sasso Massif we went higher in the Apennine Mountains in search of the highest peak in the Abruzzo region (2,912 metres or 9,553 feet high).

Our best laid plan required alteration when we approached the A25 on-ramp and faced a notice that the autoroute to Rome was closed. We were uncertain if this meant that the roads in that direction had taken a beating in the previous day’s rain storms. Undaunted we detoured to the regional road and kept heading in the direction of Rome. We got back on A25 awhile later so the issues were only with a small stretch of highway. Luckily our planned route back to Pescara took us along a different route.

We exited the interstate after the 10km tunnel at the base of the mountain in Assergi.

A Short Stop In Assergi

We headed first into the town for a coffee stop. At least that was the plan. Driving up the extremely narrow twisty road we parked at the church and wandered.

It appeared that there were no shops or bars in the town Or they were all boarded up tight at 11am. Some of the boarded up buildings were due to earthquake damage! We walked up and down until we finally decided to pass on any snack here.

Entering the church before we left town, we found a simple local church with interesting fresco paintings on the wall. We wondered how many tourists stopped at this church for a service with the locals before they headed into the mountains.

Of course as we left town we found both the open restaurant and the information centre. The information centre doubled as a museum and we surprisingly found yet more fresco painted walls. Nobody was there providing information, So we grabbed a few maps of the Gran Sassa mountain and park area.

By now it was clear that the clouds were continued to move down. We were concerned about continuing the drive to the highest peak. It would have to wait for a next trip. We headed to L’Aquila for lunch and watched the weather to finalize our plans from there.

A Sobering Stop In L’Aquila

We were absolutely not prepared for what we found in L’Aquila. With a little research we would have known that L’Aquila was severely damaged by an earthquake in 2009. We must have tried 6 different ways to get to the old town centre. But we never found a parking spot for lunch and finally left defeated.

On the outskirts we found a local bar and we stopped, just glad we could park. We both found it quite emotional when we saw the damage to the city. As we travelled through that area we found other towns with what looked like earthquake damage. But nothing quite as devastating as we saw in L’Aquila.

Since the skies seemed to be holding for now, we pulled up our reference notes and plotted our path. The road was yet one more mountain switchback road. But at least this time it was not marked with a caution sign. On our route to Calascio we encountered a shepherd crossing his sheep across the street. It was typical in this region for the shepherds to move the sheep up and down from the hills.

The Hill Town of Rocca Calascio

Bypassing Santo Stefano Di Sessanio high above the fertile plains, we arrived at the new town of Calascio.

High above the new town of Calascio, we saw Rocca Calascio as it poked in and out of the fog. This was the highest fortress in the Apennines at an elevation of 1,460 metres (4,790 ft). As we started our walk uphill in the town, we thought maybe we would walk all the way up. How wrong we were! The switchback roads in the town led us higher and higher, But when we reached the actual road up to Rocca Calascio, we knew we would go back for the car to go any higher.

The town was well preserved and provided an interesting glimpse into small hill town living. There were only 165 citizens in this town. We found no commercial establishment. Although wondered if some existed behind closed shutters. We saw one woman hanging laundry and one work truck squeeze along the narrow streets.

The biggest sign of life we found was the shaggy dog who welcomed us when we hit the top road. He then shepherded us back down to the lowest town square. Maybe we needed to stop visiting towns in the afternoon siesta time?

The Fort on High at Rocca Calascio

Having our bearings now, we drove past town and doubled back on the high road and followed the signs to Rocca Calascio. We passed all the parking signs until we got to the larger lot and saw the other cars.

While we did not pass a car on the climb up the mountain road, it appeared that we were not the only ones prepared to visit on this gloomier day. When we looked high up at the fortress, we saw that the clouds covered part of the ruins. But undaunted, we started up.

The first part was on cobblestone roads. But that quickly was replaced by a rocky dirt path. I wondered why we were silly and left our running shoes in the car!

Slow and steady we made our way up. We often stopped to look out over the valleys and checked on the movement of the clouds. We only saw wisps winding around the church but it seemed to ebb and flow.

When we reached the top we wandered around the old fort site. In areas, only parts of walls still remained. But the highest tower seemed to be in decent shape. We looked out from each of the 4 corner windows and saw how this fort had a great view in all directions. It was no wonder why this was a key point of defence for the region.

Watching the clouds roll in, we finally decided we needed to head down and hopefully beat the rain.

We would not want to do the switchback roads in blinding rain.

Heading Back From High In The Apennine Mountains Of Abruzzo

While driving down the mountain David spotted a skydiver as he floated over the valley. He may have launched from the high hills. As a former skydiver, I watched as he continued to float on the thermals and stayed high over the low hills. When he lost his air he went down quickly. We watched to see him land safely in the hills. I was not sure he made it although we did not see his parachute hung up anywhere.

Winding our way to the interstate, still trying to beat the rain we turned the car around to take a closer look at “ruins” right on the side of the road. We found the virtually complete shell of an old church with no roof and no interior. It did not appear to be the victim of earthquake damage as we saw through this region. But it was an eerie sight standing in isolation.

The rain drops hit just as we reached the interstate. It pounded down on the car the whole way home. We were ahead of the rain all day but if finally had caught up. But not before we finished our mountain adventure for this day. But this would not be our only trip into the mountains of the Abruzzo region during our week in Pescara!