A high plateau of roughly 80 square kilometres between 1,500 and 1,900 metres inside the Gran Sasso national park, with a ski resort running since the 1920s and a hotel that held Mussolini in 1943.
Tip: The road up from Castel del Monte is the scenic approach and it closes in winter. More than twenty films have been shot on the plateau.
The regional capital at 714 metres, rebuilding since the earthquake of 6 April 2009 and Italian Capital of Culture for 2026. The Fontana delle 99 Cannelle dates from 1272 and Collemaggio from 1270.
Pours: Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Alto Tirino, Trebbiano d'Abruzzo
Tip: Go in May for Vinorum in the courtyards of the historic palazzi and on Piazza Duomo, or in late August for the Perdonanza Celestiniana on 28 and 29 August.
The abbey that gave the Casauria DOCG its name, founded in 871 by Louis II, rebuilt by abbot Grimoald and reconsecrated in 1105. The bronze doors date from 1191 and the paschal candelabrum survives inside.
Pours: Casauria DOCG Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, Abruzzo Pecorino
Tip: Tenuta Secolo IX is in the same comune, so the abbey and the DOCG promoted in 2025 make one short morning on the same stretch of the Pescara valley.
The Chieti shoreline from Francavilla al Mare down to San Salvo, named for the trabocchi, fishing platforms on stilts that go back to the 18th century. The Via Verde greenway runs 60 km on the old railway.
Pours: Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo, Abruzzo Pecorino, Cococciola
Tip: Gabriele D'Annunzio rented a villa at San Vito Chietino in 1889 and put the trabocchi into his 1894 novel. Hire a bike at Ortona and ride south along the sea.
A hill town at 589 metres above the Marche border, with a fortress about 500 metres long and 45 metres wide covering 25,000 square metres. Its garrison surrendered on 20 March 1861.
Pours: Colline Teramane Montepulciano d'Abruzzo DOCG, Controguerra DOC
Tip: It sits above the Controguerra DOC, so pair the fortress with Camillo Montori or Illuminati and you have the northern tip of Abruzzo in a day.
The regional capital at 714 metres, rebuilding since the earthquake of 6 April 2009 and Italian Capital of Culture for 2026. The Fontana delle 99 Cannelle dates from 1272 and Collemaggio from 1270.
Pours: Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Alto Tirino, Trebbiano d'Abruzzo
Tip: Go in May for Vinorum in the courtyards of the historic palazzi and on Piazza Duomo, or in late August for the Perdonanza Celestiniana on 28 and 29 August.
The town at the centre of the Valle Peligna, the basin where the consortium places Abruzzo viticulture before the Renaissance. Ovid was born here, and a 12th century Gothic aqueduct runs along Piazza Garibaldi.
Pours: Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Terre dei Peligni, Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo
Tip: Buy confetti, the sugared almonds the town has made for centuries, and walk Piazza Garibaldi, where the Giostra Cavalleresca horse race is run in summer.
A stone village at 1,050 metres in the Sagittario valley, above a lake stocked with pike and perch. Henri Cartier-Bresson photographed the town in 1951 and Mario Giacomelli from 1957 to 1959.
Pours: Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Terre dei Peligni
Tip: The drive up the Sagittario gorge from Anversa is the point of the trip. Go in the morning and come back down through Sulmona for lunch.