Ah, Abruzzo – the province in Italy from where my father’s side of the family hails. I’ve been coming to the beaches of Abruzzo since I was eight years old. This was my first taste of the European lifestyle and I immediately fell in love it.
My father’s side of the family still visits Abruzzo regularly. My grandparents still have a house in my grandfather’s hometown, Pettorano Sul Gizio. I hadn’t been here since I was passing through at the age of 19. This year I decided it was about time to return.
Sam and I planned our four day long weekend to Italy around visiting my grandparents here. We decided to go to Napoli specifically because there are regular and direct buses from Napoli to Sulmona, the closest city to Pettorano. From here it would only be a 15 minute bus or taxi into town.
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A day in Sulmona, Abruzzo
We caught the 8:30am Flixbus from Napoli to Sulmona (three hours, blah), and were pretty surprised when the bus pulled over to the side of the highway a good 25 minutes drive away from the centre of town.
“Doesn’t this bus go to Sulmona” we asked the driver?
“This is where the bus stops for Sulmona.”
“Okay, so how do we get to Sulmona?”
“That’s a good question!”
And then he got back on the bus and drove away. We were literally at the side of a highway, with no sidewalk, stores, or any sort of humans in sight who weren’t speeding past in cars. There was a single piece of white paper – handwritten by a savvy local who had obviously seen tourists dumped at the side of the road – taped to a pole which simply read, ‘Taxi’ along with a phone number.
We may have been in the middle of nowhere, but at least we had access to the all knowing Google. Google Maps said it would be a 25 minute walk to a train station called Pratola Peligna, which was one stop away from Sulmona. This was a very late lesson to be learned the hard way in my travel career. Never take the destination of a bus for granted, and always check the drop off address.
We walked down the side of the highway to Pratola Peligna, which was a very small and sleepy town. We found one store who pointed us in the direction of its one bar. Here we picked up a couple of (German) train beers for the nine minute ride to Sulmona.
The Sulmona train station may have been a half an hour walk outside of town (sigh) but it was such an interesting train station. It showed off its history with incredible 100 year old trains out front and a beautiful arch at the end of the drive in.
We walked 25 minutes down a tree-lined street towards Sulmona town, calling Ristorante Clemente on the way to make a reservation.
Sam had chosen this spot after not much research and based mainly on Google Maps photos. With our fingers crossed we ordered a (very generous) half litre of home made white wine. We often do this in Europe knowing there is a solid chance we’re going to sneakily pour it into a potted plant, but at €4 for half a litre of wine it’s worth the risk.
And what a risk! The wine was amazing and so was the food. The homemade sourdough and focaccia excellent. Sam proclaimed the pasta dish – a homemade spaghetti with ricotta and saffron pancetta – to be the best he’s ever had in a restaurant.
Everything was so good that we ordered 250ml of the red wine (it was more like 350ml) to go with our grilled meat plate. This was also ridiculously delicious, and not even by homemade red wine standards.
When we went inside to pay the bill and saw that the door was covered floor to ceiling in Michelin Guide stickers for every year… ever. What a find. We laughed when the bill came and it was €50. Don’t miss Ristorante Clemente if visiting Sulmona.
We were later than we expected getting into Sulmona due to the Pratola Peligna detour. I was conscious that my grandmother was anxiously waiting for us to arrive. We went off to find the bus from Sulmona to Pettorano, and the next one wasn’t for three hours. Whoops. We went for a beer and espresso while we went to find a taxi, but at this point it was siesta time, and the streets were dead. The one taxi in town wasn’t responding to our calls/messages.
I called my grandmother to see if she could order us a taxi, and within literally five minutes, my grandfather’s niece and her husband turned up with two cars. We had been expecting to wait and so had to take two Campari Spritzes to go. Slightly embarrassing when hoisting into your distant Italian relative’s car.
A day in Pettorano sul Gizio, Sulmona
Pettorano is an interesting looking town built on a narrow and tall hill. It looks as though it has risen from the valley floor between two giant mountains covered thickly with trees. We said our hellos to my grandparents and went for a siesta at a family house, which had generously been made up for us.
Recharged, we walked up the hill to the only place to go – the Piazza overlooking the mountain, where there is one bar and one restaurant. Interestingly, that night there was also a stage performing live music for what must have been an audience of no more than 200 people.
We got a drink at the bar, Bar al Cortile, which sits in this piazza overlooking the thick mountain forest that surrounds Pettorano.
When my family arrived we moved two tables over so that we were sitting at the restaurant, Il Torchio. We barely even saw the menus before a procession of many different small plates came out for us all to share. A local speciality of chopped lamb liver was a bit too much for me, but Sam bravely ate.
We had a bottle of the Montepulciano wine from the local vineyard Bosco which was delicious. The meal ended with a choice of Liquore di Genziana or Fernet Branca. Or both.
After my family went downstairs, Sam and I carried on at the bar. When we left, the piazza was still heaving with what must have been the entire town’s worth of people. We realised that we didn’t exactly take note of the address of the house that we were staying in. And all of the houses looked exactly the same. Fortunately we found the correct house without too much trial and error.
A day in Pescara, Abruzzo
The next morning we drove to Pescara, the main beach town of Abruzzo. While full of tourists it is almost exclusively Italian tourists who rock up to the umbrella clad beach to call claim to a single set of umbrella and chairs for the whole season. The beaches are tightly packed and full of families. The town is full of restaurants and bars as well as a few high fashion stores. The airport is a fifteen minute drive from the main town and an absolute breeze. There are only a handful of departures per day (including to London Stansted courtesy of Ryanair).
We stayed at Hotel Esplanade, which is right in the very centre of Pescara, opposite the beach. The set-up there is, as Sam affectionately calls the dated-but-classic Italian look, “Shitalian.” In terms of location and price (€100 for one night) it was perfect. The online reviews are not indicative of our experience.
After a relaxing afternoon on the beach, Sam and I wanted to hit some bars before going for a family dinner. While we intended on doing some exploring, the bar directly opposite the hotel was donned in Forst branding. We could not walk past without getting some Forst. Forst is our favourite Italian brewery. As a couple of lager lovers we recognise just how big a step up it is in quality compared to other macro lagers. Its location in the Alps in South Tyrol near the Austrian border probably has something to do with it. While it is a common beer to find in northern Italy, we hadn’t seen it at all in Abruzzo.
One Forst in, we headed inwards from the coast and into town. We stopped at La Cava for a prosecco (me) and a negroni (Sam).
We could have easily and happily continued bar hopping, but we had a dinner reservation at Rostelle & Co with about 12 people in my family. One of regional specialties of Abruzzo are Arrosticini / Spiedini. These are very small cubes of meat layered with fat on a skewer and cooked on a grill. Rostelle & Co served these in servings of ten in giant branded cups.
For dessert we walked across the street to Gelateria Bar Napoli for gelato and espressos at a classic bar. before heading back to the hotel. We let my family drop us off and headed back out to see some of the evening festivities, inexplicably centred around a mini Eiffel Tower and women dressed up in frilly blue dresses on stilts. One more Forst and then off to bed.
In classic European holiday fashion, we woke up wanting a good breakfast but struggled to find anything substantial. After walking up and down rows of beach bars with only pastries on offer, one of the bars started turning out pizzette. Typically pizzette on the beach are a bit of a sad affair. More so following a trip to Napoli. The selection is usually limited to marinara, margherita, and occasionally a hot dog type of topping for the kids. Trieste, however, had a full pizzette menu and while triple the price of the usual €1, it was absolutely banging. We liked it so much that we came back at lunch to pick up 15 more for lunch on the beach for the family.
We had a few more hours on the beach before heading back to the beautifully tiny airport to head home. Pescara is a great destination for a weekend. We wish we had more time to spend in Sulmona. Or at least seen it when it was actually open for business. We very rarely rent cars when we travel, and opt instead for trains and taxis. In Abruzzo, however, it was impossible to get taxis. Had my family not been there, we would have struggled to get from Pettorano to Sulmona and back. If you can find a way to get there it really is a beautiful little village. In the summer months a direct train service runs from Sulmona to Pescara. A direct train from Rome also services Sulmona, making the town an ideal stop-off en route to the beach.
We would recommend checking out and staying in Sulmona for a day/night and having a couple of days in the beach town of Pescara, all of which is easily accessible, local, and reasonably priced.
