Corona stories: Number 65, Italy 2003

A home away from home

Where do you stay on a road trip when you are traveling with two little critters of 3 ½ years and 9 month old? Definitely not in the claustrophobic room of a big hotel. We see plenty of these when we pull off the main road which avoids the center of Caramanico Terme by a tunnel, and drive along the Via della Libertà, the old main road, into town. Already as early as 1576 a spring, called Zolfarina, was known at the site, which was said to heal diseases of the bronchi. In 1836, the first rudimentary shed was built and in 1901 a proper thermal complex. Since the time the town has become a quiet but popular resort town in the hart of the national park La Majella.

Caramanico Terme

The old center of town

Rain clouds move in over the Majella

It is a small town and soon we have passed the town center and continue on the main road, convinced that there is no suitable place for us to stay here. After a couple of minutes we pass one of the brown signs which in Italy indicate places of touristic interest. The sign announces a “locanda del barone”. The sign indicates a bed and a restaurant. We pull off the main road onto a steep narrow winding access road down to the bottom of the valley. We pass a little village and climb up the slope again. The locanda is in one of a couple of old farm buildings. It is a small place and we don’t expect that they have any space for us.

The locanda del barone

I walk into the dining room of the restaurant. The tables look like they have been used for lunch but haven’t been cleaned up yet. An older woman and a big dog appear from what probably is the kitchen and I ask for a room. Since I only know some words in Italian I try Spanish using the few italian words I know. It turns out that she speaks perfect Spanish – her husband, the cook, is a Spaniard. She excuses herself for the mess, it is always very busy at lunchtime on sundays, and, yes, they have got a room for us. The name of the dog is “barone”, and he gave the place its name. The little kids immediately make friends with the friendly baron.

San Vittorio, the neighborhood where ...

.... the locanda del Barone is located

The room is big with a balcony and a view of the main mountain range of La Majella still covered with patches of snow. After we have settled in we go down for dinner. There is a wide selection of antipasti which were prepared for sunday’s lunchtime guests and we enjoy all of them. While we eat the antipasti, the owner asks what we want to have for primi and secondi. Little children always like pasta, but without a complicated sauce, so there will be different primi for us and the daughter of 3. After the antipasti an enormous amount of pasta arrives. We try our best to at least finish a part of it but we already had far to many antipasti. The woman observes us struggling with the food. Then she asks us whether we really want to have a secondi. With great relief we accept her offer to prepare secondi in addition to antipasti tomorrow and skip the secondi for tonight.

The limestone cliffs of the Abruzzi

The Abruzzi chamois

The Majella, only 180 km from Roma, is formed by a compact limestone massif. Many of the summits almost reach a height of 3000 m, the highest peak in the group is Monte Amaro with 2793 m. The main features of La Majella are the mountain plateaus at heights of around 2000 m. In May, the time of our visits, there is still a lot of snow in the high altitudes. When we try to drive up to one of the plateaus the next day we have to stop since the narrow mountain road ends at a barrier of snow.

Mountain road to the heights of the Majella

The steep slopes of the massif are furrowed by deep and steep valleys turning into deep gorges before they reach the valleys. They are carved by rivers such as the Orfento. The hiking path down the valley of the Orfento is one of the most spectacular in the Majella. At dinner our host insists that we have to see it. However, for us, to walk up to the plateau to return down along the bottom of the valley is too far since we have to carry the little children in backpacks. But she has a solution: she calls her son who owns a pizzeria at the entrance to town and arranges that he will drive us up the mountain road to the upper entrance of the gorge.

The gorge of Orfento near Caramanico

Again dinner, this time antipasti and secondi, is excellent. We can place an order for the next evening and I ask for conejo. We have seen many of them on the mountain slopes and I guess they also have a tasty local recipe for rabbit. She is obviously pleased to prepare a special dish for us and promises to search for fresh rabbit.

The begin of the hike down the gorge

The most dramatic part of the gorge

Since the "Valle dell' Orfento" is a nature reserve a permit is necessary to walk into the gorge. The next morning after breakfast we get the permit and drive to the pizzeria where the son is already waiting for us. We change to an old Ford station wagon and start driving up the mountain slope on an unpaved road. The higher we get the worse the road becomes. Eventually it turns into a track. The old Ford bumps across rocks and the bottom scratches across the high center of the track. The clutch starts to squeak and there is the smell of burnt rubber. But the brother has no mercy with the old car. Eventually we arrive at a picnic area above the entrance to the gorge.

Water beetle and tadpoles

Over the course of millions of years, the water of the Orfento has dug a narrow gorge today covered by thick riparian vegetation of willows, ferns and mosses. The valley is home to rare species like the spectacled salamander, the yellow-bellied toad, the brown trout and otters. Apennine deer and roe deer have been reintroduced. The amount of water is depending on the season. In spring there is lots of water from snow melt in the river. At some points the path is carved out of the rock faces lining the gorge and so narrow that I have to take the children’s backpack off since it would hit the overhanging rocks. Eventually we reach the main road at the entrance to Caramanico Terme. When walking back to the other side of town to our car we pass through the historic medieval town center which is barely visible from the main road.

Market in Popoli

At the locanda de Barone the rabbit dinner is waiting for us. And after we have seen the many fish in the water of the Orfento I ask whether we can have trout for dinner the following night. There is a trout farm in the valley and the cook will get fresh fish for us the next day.

Even in 2003 some of the typical italian cars were left

In the 11th century the Majella became a center of Christian worship. Abbeys were built and monasteries founded, but many monks also retired in hermitages in the seclusion of the mountains. One of the hermitages is the eremo de san bartolomeo. The origins go back to before the 11th century. The building was hacked into the overhanging limestone cliff in a valley not far from Caramanico Terme. In the 13th century it was used by Pietro dal Morrone, the future Pope Celestino V. A number of stairs lead to a simple chapel and two rooms carved into the rock. A long balcony protects the hermits from falling into the valley. Along the balcony there is a tank for collecting rainwater. The church contains a statue of the name saint St. Bartolomeo. His feature is a knife in his hand to remind that he was skinned for his faith. Every year the statue is carried down to the creek at the bottom of the valley to be bathed and then carried to the church of the next village, where it stays for a month. The water of the creek can also be used by the exhausted tourist to refresh from the hike to the hermitage.

The trail to the eremo del san bartolomeo

The "balcony" of the hermitage

Sheppards' shelters

Pietro da Morrone also founded the hermitages of San Giovanni, Sant'Onofrio and Santo Spirito a Majella. But the area has examples of even older churches. San Clemente a Casauria was built in the 9th century, San Pelino in Corfinio between 1075 and 1124 and the construction of San Panfilo in Sulmona began in 1075.

San Pelino de Corfinio

The cathedral of San Pelino in Corfinio began in 1075 together with that of San Panfilo di Sulmona. The work was only completed in 1124. In 1229 it burnt down and later it was frequently damaged by earthquakes. Afterwards the interior was rebuilt according in Baroque style. These additions were removed upon restoration in the 1970s.

The church of San Clemente in Casauria

According to legend the abbey of San Clemente a Casauria was built in 871 AD by the Emperor Ludwig II, grandson of Charlemagne, because of a vow made during his captivity in the Benevento duchy. The building was heavily damaged in the earthquake of 2009. Inside there is an ambo, the candelabrum, urn and altar made of Majella's stone. Outside there is a collection of Roman tombstones.

Church of Saint Thomas Apostle

The construction of the church of San Tommaso just outside Caramanico started in 1202. Numerous reconstructions were necessary after earthquake damages.

The church of Santa Maria della Pieta in Calascio

The boot of Italy is subject to frequent earthquakes. The trembles in 1706 and 1933 were especially disastrous. An earthquake on April 6th, 2009 had its epicenter in l’Aquila, the main town of the Abruzzo mountain range. 309 people died and there was enormous damage. 65.000 people lost their homes. The earthquake had a magnitude of 5.8-5.9 on the Richter scale. An italian observer noted that an earthquake of this magnitude wouldn’t have killed a single person in California. Although some of the historic buildings in the scenic center of l’Aquila also were destroyed, most of the damage happened to modern buildings which were poorly built without taking into account that this is an earthquake zone. A dormitory of the university collapsed and the new wing of the local hospital built in 2000 supposedly earthquake proof was damaged to such an extent that it had to be closed. Other earthquakes in the area happened on August 24th, 2016 (magnitude 6.2, 299 dead) and again on January 18th, 2017 (magnitude 5.7, 34 dead). It would not be Italy if there would not have been issues with disappearing aid money, involvement of the mafia in reconstruction projects and an overall delay in rebuilding and help.

At the church in Caramanico

Some of the numerous historic villages around the Majella are Roccacaramanico, Popoli and Pacentro

Roccacaramanico

Pacentro

The towers of the castle above the town of Pacentro

The center of the little town of Popoli

It is highly surprising that such a number of historic buildings of sometimes a thousand years old survive in a geologically active zone. Not only Carmanico terme, but many other towns have conserved their medieval town centers. There are numerous castles, watchtowers and fortified villages preserved. Sulmona, the biggest town of the Majella area, was so prosperous in the fifteenth century that it was considered the Siena of the Abruzzi.

The acueduct and the main square of Sulmona

After several more days of sightseeing in the area we have to leave the locanda del barone. It was definitely one of the best places I have ever stayed. It is still there and when I ever come back to that area I would love to enjoy the excellent food again.