Abruzzo - Pescara/Chieti/and Territory - Where should we stay?

[Wendy&Rob]

Hello, I have been following Pauline and Steve's SlowEurope for a bit, but this is my first time posting, many of you already know us and that is very comforting.

The following is a posting I made a short time ago on that other site. I am hoping that possibly someone here might be able to help us on...;

At the end of this May we are planning on spending 5 nights in Abruzzo. We will be coming from Rome and following our Abruzzo time with time in Venice. I have our anchors, and as of a short time ago I have our air.

What I/we don’t have is where to base ourselves in Abruzzo.

Rob’s Father’s family came from this region, his Grandmother from Chieti and his Grandfather from Salle Vecchia -http://www.italyheritage.com/r...zo/pescara/salle.htm and these are the two parts of Abruzzo we want to spend time in-and-around.

In 2006/7(?) we spent a few hours in Salle Vecchia, walking around, just us and a white pigeon - everywhere we went this same pigeon followed us. Seriously. When we drove away the heavens opened up and P O U R E D down on us all the way back to Rome - one of our scariest times in a car, for both of us, Ever! I mentioned at the time “it is like ‘It’ doesn’t want you to leave”, “It” being the town. BTW, Rob shares his birthday with the Patron Saint for Salle Vecchia - St. Robert July 18th.

We absolutely will spend time there and see the castle and the church, which were both closed up tight when we were there. Rob researched whether the church and castle are open to the public, and it is open daily with a reservation - that will be Rob’s job... securing the reservations.

We have not been to Chieti, maybe there or Pescara would be a good ‘home’ base. I don’t think Rob will contact his Pescara relatives.

Are there any ‘current’ recommendations and ideas for where to stay/base ourselves? Rob wants to stay on the east side of the Mnt. Morrone/Appenines.

Of course we are looking for any suggestions of places, things, sights and tastes that are not-to-be-missed. How is L'Aquila (not to stay)? We have read that Castles (abandoned and not) are a-plenty, do you have any thoughts or suggestions?

A new territory, new land, new roads to explore. Thank You very much. W&R

 

[Wendy&Rob]

Hi, I came across this 16th C. Farmhouse with apartments. There was a review elsewhere ;-) from '04, and I am wondering if anyone here has heard of, stayed in or know anything about;

http://www.lemagnolie.com/eng_contatti.html

We leave in 6 weeks and I am stumped on where we should stay for the 5 nights.

Thank you

 

[Valerie]

Neat story about your visit and the fact that your husband (Rob) shares his birthday with the town's patron saint, Roberto! Wow.

In that area, I'd recommend Sulmona as a homebase. It's a really lovely town and has some nice B&Bs and inns, good restaurants and good connections. A little closer to Salle is Caramanico Terme, also cute, we stayed at an agriturismo there once that I'd have to look up; but it might be a bit too off the main roads for seeing Abruzzo. Pescara is pretty - well, bland. Not much charm. Better to go uphill or inland, in my opinion.

 

[Wendy&Rob]

Thank you Valerie, Rob thinks Sulmona is too far away -though it will probably be in a day-trip.

I have found a place in Manoppello;
http://www.villapardi.it

Do you or anyone else know of this property? It is aprox. 30 minutes away from both Chieti and Salle Vecchia. Plus Rob has a cousin in Torre de Passeri I hope he will contact. The one time we met them neither of us spoke any Italian, now we can understand and converse, not grammatically correct, but at least we can be understood. And I am hoping after two full weeks in Rome our Italian will be that much better.

So, if anyone can help we would appreciate it. W&R

 

[Jerr]

Have you spoken to Palma? Frederico's family us from Pescara so she has visited this area recently.

 

[Wendy&Rob]

No Jerry, I haven't. Palma is so busy with her baby shower that I didn't want to distract her, though I did start to pick up my phone last weekend to call her. I think maybe I will do that today. . Thanks for the reminder.

I am still waiting to hear from Villa Pardi, I just sent them another note, as I did see they have 2 suites, at least one of them has a kitchenette. We are looking for something with a sofa (or sitting area) along with bedroom.

Hope all is well with the two of you and that your travel plans are all set.

 

[Wendy&Rob]

For our update;
We have an apartment at Villa Pardi, they have been extremely easy to work with.
There is a kitchenette, washing machine - though I don't know if it is shared with the other apartment in that building or not, breakfast each morning and we are going to have dinner our first night (20eupp, there).
We plan on dining in Chieti one night - don't know where, and hopefully we will meet up with Palma's 'Italian' family;-)
Any suggestions for dining are very welcomed.
I am really happy with our choice of place to 'Home base', and I will let you know how it goes.

 

[Wendy&Rob]

Hello, I see I was negligent in returning to let you know how we enjoyed our time in the Abruzzo region, met up with people who knew Rob's Father's family, the many kindnesses bestowed upon us and how great Villa Pardi was.

As of this past week, we have our flights to and from California, to FCO! ! ! We are starting with four nights/three days in Tolfa (Fontana del Papa), and then spending five nights in the apartment in Manoppello - Villa Pardi. We are fortunate enough to be able to reserve the apartment we had last year and the Feast of The Holy Face of Manoppello, also known as the Veil of Veronica, will be going on while we are there.

We are very happy to return, to be in Italy for a festa - especially in a region not over touristed - and to be able to reserve the apartment again.

Maybe this time we will research Rob's Nonna....

The one thing that was obvious, Abruzzo is not touristed, the people would like to see more people come and visit, the countryside we saw was fascinating, rugged and truly beyond beautiful. Emanuele said that they are trying for better advertisement and more tourism, I hope it works, but slowly and carefully.

BTW, we found the Manoppello and the environs to be extremely reasonable. More about that later....

We are very excited to be returning