Life in Abruzzo

31/07/2026

Do property developers really have to possess every km of Abruzzo's coast? The actions planned here sound like Riserve Bosacchio all over again, but at a local level. Worth sharing and signing if you'd like to keep such a beautiful, pristine area from being built over

The petition promoted by the citizens of the Abruzzo municipality of Vasto to safeguard the cliff from new tourism concessions intended for hospitality facilities and other public-domain concessions planned along the coastline has surpassed three thousand signatures.

28/07/2026

We are so sad to hear of Emidio Pepe's passing. He was one of the first people we visited and wrote about on Life in Abruzzo, after tasting his wines at home and hearing his unique story.

His influence on winemaking in Abruzzo is enormous. He showed how a small winemaker in northern Teramo could become a legend worldwide, with his wines loved and praised on every continent. But more than anything, he showed us that being different brings success, no matter what the big corporations would have you believe. Respect the earth. Be biodynamic, organic, small, independent, traditional: plant and harvest in tune with the moon. Small is better, where you can nurture quality with your own hands, and what wines of quality he gave us.

Thank you, Emidio, for being such a joyful, one-of-a-kind spirit for Abruzzo, and for always doing things your own way.

Photo of Emidio and Chiara, his granddaughter, from our last visit. RIP, Emidio, raising a glass to you

28/07/2026

☀️Summer in Abruzzo sorted!


I've pulled together everything I know, from fifteen years of exploring this region with my own son, into one big family guide: over 100 things to do with children, from toddlers to teens.

A few of the things waiting for you:

🏛️ Roman towns where kids can play hide-and-seek among the columns, and leap about a real gladiator arena
🐺 Wolves, bears, deer and chamois, up close and wild
🏖️ The best beaches: Blue Flag sands, quiet reserves, accessible boardwalks, even dog beaches
🕳️ Cool museums, caves and shady walks for when you need to get out of the sun
🚠 Cable cars, castles, waterfalls and a whole valley of them

Gentle on the purse or free, and almost all of it still off the tourist trail. Link in thread below

27/07/2026

Sheep on mountain tops!

Chasing a breeze up at Madoninna, Prati di Tivo (TE)

Abruzzo

24/07/2026

Abruzzo is Europe's greenest region. On paper.

Three great wildlife wins happened here this summer, every one of them achieved by dedicated, stubborn people and institutions who refused to give up.

Back in March, ISPRA sent the Region 15 pages outlining what could safely be shot this season and what could not. ISPRA is the government's own environmental research institute, the body Italian taxpayers fund to count the birds and say what the shooting can stand.

The regional government had one task, and it decided to ignore science. The calendar is set by a regional government put in place by fewer than three in ten of those entitled to vote, on the lowest turnout Abruzzo has ever recorded.

So small migratory birds already in trouble go into the 2026/27 hunting calendar with no seasonal limit at all. The daily limit applies to each species separately, which means one hunter may lawfully shoot 15 Fieldfares, 15 Redwings, 15 Song Thrushes and 5 Blackbirds on the same day. Blackbirds are thrushes too, which surprises most people. Over a season, that comes to more than 2,500 thrushes, taken by one person. And that is only some of what the calendar allows.

Where a management plan exists, the ceiling is 20 or 25 birds. Where none exists, there is no ceiling at all.

The Region cannot count its own hunters either. Its last figure is from the 2017/18 season: 10,332, average age 57.7. Carry forward the decline it had already measured, and that is somewhere near 8,000 today, though nobody knows, because nobody has counted since.

Eight thousand people in a region of 1.26 million. One in every 156. And it is the small birds that pay for it.

The three good news stories, the failure, and the bag limits for the season ahead, link in the thread below

24/07/2026

What a lovely way to explore Roccascalegna tomorrow with Ezio! Touring the castle, truffle hunting and 4-course lunch with a pasta making demonstration and eating what you find! It will be 27 C for enjoyable walking! Link in bio.

23/07/2026

It’s cool with a breeze up on Campo Imperatore, the most beautiful place to walk and clear your head.

19/07/2026

Part two of two.

Everyone views in the pretty months. Spring, when the hills are green, and the false acacia is dripping white over every roadside. Autumn, when the woods turn gold, and the light sells the house on its own.

Come back in summer. The wheat is almost all cut and gone, but the land nobody tends is tinder: the abandoned terrace, the broom, the scrub in the gully. Once that catches, it carries fire up into the old woodland above, which is the real loss. And the house you fell in love with sits at the top of it, up a track a fire engine cannot climb.

This is the checklist nobody goes through with you. Not the agent, who wants the sale. Not the survey, which looks at the roof. It is water, access, slope, and the land you do not own.

Out here, there is no hydrant, so the engines bring their own water, and the question is how far they must drive to refill. There is often no law requiring you to clear your own ground. The rain now takes your track away in a single afternoon, and if you cannot get out, nobody can get in. Not the ambulance. Not the fire engine; they would never risk getting stuck for the sake of your house.

And a great many people now buy from a laptop on another continent, on the strength of a photo gallery, without ever standing in front of the place. You cannot see a cratered track or the dry hillside above the roof in a listing built to sell a dream.

None of this is a reason not to buy. We did. It is a reason to look with your eyes open, in February, not in the spring light with your heart running ahead of your head.

Full guide on Life in Abruzzo. Link in comments.

19/07/2026

Over the last eight years, I have had to evacuate twice for wildfires. One in Abruzzo, one in Rome. You do not forget the sound of it, or the waiting for the Canadair, or not being allowed home until the next afternoon.

So, the question I could not have answered before it happened to me: if a fire started on the hill tonight, would you know what to do?

And in summer, do you check the Region's daily fire risk, published province by province, or do you just look at the temperature? The temperature only tells you it is hot. The risk level indicates whether, if something catches on fire today, they will send aircraft to waterbomb it.

The numbers are not subtle. By 19 July, Italy had already had 125 fires, against a historic average of about 65 for the date, nearly twice the usual pace, in a season only three weeks old. That is 14,489 hectares, two and a half Manhattans, gone already. Across the whole EU, 188,335 hectares had burned by 15 July, bigger than Greater Manchester and Merseyside combined, and the summer has barely started. Last year, Europe lost over a million hectares, very nearly the entire area of Abruzzo, in a single season.

When a fire happens here, the village names an arsonist by lunchtime. Report what you genuinely saw to the Carabinieri Forestali, then let it go, because the real arsonists are not in your village. They are the ones who keep urging us to drill, to burn more coal and oil, to buy more plastic. A cigarette or a spark still lights most fires. What has changed is the tinderbox it lands in, and that was made somewhere else, on purpose, by people who profit from it.

The single most useful thing any of us can do is free and takes seconds: know the number, know where to check the daily risk, know what to do if you are caught out.

Part one of two. Full guide on Life in Abruzzo now. Link in comments.

16/07/2026

NEW on Abruzzo Connections, Selvatico Arsita

Somebody walks the hills above Arsita in the morning, and what they come back with decides what you eat. Selvatico is a foraging restaurant up in Teramo's Gran Sasso mountains, and selvatico means wild. There is no fixed menu, because a fixed menu would need the countryside to behave.

Every weekend has its own event. This Saturday, they are baking in Arsita's communal oven, their favourite place to bake, chatting in English and Italian over a glass of wine before everyone heads back to the table to sit down and eat together. Arrive at 7pm for the demonstration.

Fifty minutes from Roseto and Silvi. Friday and Saturday evenings, dishes €4 to €12.

Link in the first comment.