Abruzzo nature: trabocchi, three parks, a geopark

Abruzzo's nature runs from the Adriatic to 2,912³ meters: more than thirty trabocchi, wooden fishing machines anchored to the rocks, line the coast between Ortona and Vasto, and three national parks hold the mountains behind it.

The trabocchi: more than thirty from Ortona to Vasto

A trabocco is a wooden fishing machine built out over the rocks: beams anchor it, a plank walkway leads to a platform, and long arms hold up the corners of the net. More than thirty stand on the southern Chieti coast.

They run through eight coastal comuni: Ortona, San Vito Chietino, Rocca San Giovanni, Fossacesia, Torino di Sangro, Casalbordino, Vasto and San Salvo. Turchino at San Vito Chietino, Punta Le Morge at Torino di Sangro and Pesce Palombo at Fossacesia are three of the named ones.

Gabriele d'Annunzio spent the summer of 1889¹ at Villa Italia in San Vito Chietino and set part of Trionfo della morte on this coast.

The Via Verde and the Punta Aderci reserve

The Via Verde della Costa dei Trabocchi is a cycle path on the bed of the old Adriatic railway, and Trenitalia includes it among twenty Italian bike routes you can reach by regional train. Ortona is 25 minutes by train from Pescara, and Vasto 15 minutes from Termoli.

Its length and how much of it is open in 2026 couldn't be confirmed: neither of the path's own domains resolved, so no kilometer figure is given.

At the southern end, the Punta Aderci reserve runs from Punta Penna to the mouth of the Sinello, and its emblem is the Kentish plover.

Three national parks with their seat in Abruzzo

Three of Italy's 24 operating national parks have their seat in Abruzzo on the environment ministry's list: Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga, Majella, and Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise.

Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga spreads 150,000³ hectares over Abruzzo, Lazio and Marche, and holds Corno Grande, at 2,912³ meters the highest peak in the Apennines. Its offices have been at Assergi since 2001.

Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise dates from a private initiative in 1922 and a law in 1923, and covers 50,500⁴ hectares. The walking side of all three is covered in hiking in Abruzzo.

Maiella: a UNESCO geopark since April 21, 2021

Since April 21, 2021, the Maiella national park has also been a UNESCO Global Geopark, covering 39 comuni. The recognition rests on geology read together with biodiversity, local traditions and archaeological heritage.

Its own site spells the name Maiella. The environment ministry's national park list uses Majella, and you'll meet both on maps and signs.

The Calderone: what is left of the ice

The Calderone sits below the 2,912³ meter summit of Corno Grande, in its north-facing bowl, and the park's page describes it as Europe's southernmost glacial body since the Sierra Nevada's ice melted away.

That page carries no date, and scientists have since downgraded the Calderone to a glacieret, ice that no longer flows downhill. The careful description is the last ice body of the Apennines, and the area printed on the park's sheet shouldn't be read as a 2026 measurement.

Where to read more

Three pages go deeper: Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga, the Marmolada collapse on what is happening to Italy's ice, and national parks for the whole country. For the region, see Abruzzo and food in Abruzzo.

↑ Contents