Abruzzo

If you love to drive small winding roads enclosed by a high mountain on one side and by a steep drop towards the river on the other side, following the road through short dark tunnels unto large blue lakes, the evening sun reflects on a small city far away build on the utmost top of a mountain - then Abruzzo is a must for you.

But if each turn of the road starts you worrying what lays ahead of you, not again a crazy Italian driving with maximum speed on the wrong side of the road so that he doesn't need to lower speed to much in each curve, or if you panic when you end up nose to nose with this enormous Italian camper in the 90 degrees turn in the smallest street of Anversa d'Abruzzi, just before the entrance of the rift, the street itself could be a rift, narrow with high stone walls on both sides, no way you can back out with the caravan, so this enormous camper will have to move back. It takes some time till the camper driver realizes that there is no other option. In the meantime hooting Italians heap up behind your caravan and behind the camper, a cacophony of hooting cars. So if you worry about this it could be wiser not to visit Abruzzo and just follow the highway to Rome (don't worry, enough stress opportunities are to be found in the Rome traffic!).

As you understand by now, the only way to reach the National Park of Abruzzo is by small, kind of impossible roads. Of coarse this makes this park almost irresistible for me, combined with the stories in the World Nature magazine, where I read a story about this park, one of the last real jungles of Europe. I have to admit the jungle aspect didn't came up to my expectations. Of course we are totally spoiled by our last travels, especially the beautiful parks in Kenya and Tanzania.

We spend a whole day walking in the park. 'I don't know why you always want to walk up mountain in the heat of the day and where the hell are we going' (when you don't know us: this was a very hot Jac), 'Just a small walk, get to know the surroundings, a little bit of adventure, you know and after going up we always go down, don't worry' (that's me). Lucky we didn't carry any heartbeat measurement devices, like our current fitness machines, because I suspect we where well above the optimum training heartbeat of '80% of the maximum heartbeat'. A pity we didn't see any bears, but we did see some woodcutters with tractor and motor saw and an Italian boy on his off the road motorbike speeding on the sand roads, his girl friend on the back, looking for a romantic spot. Anyway, the park is large so I suppose the boars, wolfs and lynxes will hide themselves some place quiet where they aren't disturbed by tractors, motor bikes and grumbling trackers. We did see some bird of prey, supposedly vultures attracted by the smell of our sweating bodies!

The next day we relaxed, we did absolutely nothing, just sit in front of our caravan in the shade and read a nice thriller. This camping, just as the last one, is full of Italian families. On this camping we are the only foreigners. Also in the neighborhood we see only Italian tourists, no foreigner to be seen. But for Italians lake Scanno is very popular. Our camping is next to the lake, a little bit up mountain so we have a beautiful view on the lake. The camping is very clean, social control everywhere, when you don't keep to the rules there is always an Italian woman around reminding you of your responsibilities - in Italian of course, so sometimes the only thing obvious is that you are doing something really wrong, but what? Most of the families have a semi permanent summer residence over here, a caravan with lots of wooden walls around, carpets on the floor, inside always a fridge and outside the Italian equivalent of the Dutch goblins and small ponds.

The following day we drive around with the car - no worry Jac, no walking, just a small stroll or two in a picturesque town. First we drive through Scanno, a beautiful, authentic place on top of a mountain, just as all older places around here. You feel kind of safe up here, but the car usually must be parked below and the you have to climb up the small streets with slippery stones, looking for shops and restaurants. The central square with the old church is always busy, in the evening full of lights and lots of Italian tourists, during the day the local population regains the square, discussing local and international politics on the benches in front of the church.

We follow the rift, the 'Gole del Sagittario' to the south and enter again the National Park. The road gives a wide view on the empty park. We cross the park in the direction of Barrea, situated next to the Barrea Lake. This is a very busy place, the roads not suitable for so much traffic. On the most difficult points where cars get stuck every time traffic lights try to regulate things. But every motor bike and lots of supposedly local cars ignore the traffic lights and overtake the long waiting row of cars, finally ending up in front of the cars from the opposite direction. Nobody can drive anymore, not to the front and not to the back, so then the hooting starts again. The only thing we can do is wait patiently and don't get irritated.

Barrea again is one of the older villages, built on top of a hill. So each turn of the road brings us higher and higher and the view on the lake is better and better. Not withstanding the small villages and crowded traffic this park gives a feeling of space, wide views and lots of emptiness.

We visit Alfedana, where we climb up to the old castle (again a nice view!) and take a drink. Next we drive to Pescocostanzo, a most charming place - that is: if you find the center! Small stones cover the street in interesting patterns, balconies filled with flowers, lanterns hanging from the houses and small steps to cover height differences.

Back north we drive to Sulmona, crossing the large plain, the 'Piano di Cinquemiglia' and back again toward the cliff, again passing through Anversa d'Abruzzi. We don't meet any campers this time. A beautiful tour, but a little longer than foreseen - as usual I would say. Tomorrow we'll take a relax day again.

When we leave Jac knows exactly how to drive this difficult road: he follows a cabbage truck also leaving the 'Gole del Sagittario', the smell is bad but oncoming traffic without hesitation heads back, so the truck is able to pass in between high rock walls and cars, our Opel with caravan in its wake!

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