Edited by Michele Lauro
The route travels up the Abruzzo coast from San Salvo to Martinsicuro, from where the Marche is visible beyond the Tronto river. The quick ride to Vasto along the beautiful seashore, overlooked by Palazzo D’Avalos, opens to panoramas of the Adriatic up to Francavilla al Mare, in a coastal stretch protected by natural reserves with suggestive names: Punta Aderci, Lecceta di Torino di Sangro, Grotta delle Farfalle and Punta dell’Acquabella. Next to the cycle and walking path that flanks the road, the “trabocchi” penetrate the sea like iron stilts, making one think of the fish soup that is a specialty here. The route continues on past Ortona, a village that has dramatic memories of war – when this part of Abruzzo was crossed by the Gustav line with its trail of destruction, escapes and Resistance. From Francavilla al Mare the route folds inwards towards the Chieti ridge, between fading hills dotted with vineyards, olive groves, villages and castles, and poignant panoramas of the Gran Sasso and Maiella mountains.
Having circumnavigated the outskirts of Pescara, from the Montesilvano hill you can see the Aleppo pines of the St. Philomena pine forest to the south, the promenade of Montesilvano Marina to the north as well as the complex of the former marine colony, Stella Maris (1938-39), which is built in the shape of a mythical futuristic airplane. Silvi Marina, with its low, pine-bordered dunes, opens to the elegant seaside resorts of the Teramo coast: Pineto, Roseto degli Abruzzi, Giulianova Lido, Tortoreto. From the upper village of the latter, the final 50 km slide down towards the shores of Tortoreto, Alba Adriatica and Martinsicuro, and then sharply steer inland, climbing hairpin bends to reach placid hamlets whose military history is recalled in the place names (Colonnella and Controguerra). The race finishes at a high altitude in Tortoreto.
From Ortona to Vasto the so-called “Trabocchi” Coast has been enhanced by restoring, for tourism purposes, some of the ancient fishing structures hoisted on wooden stilts, like spiders anchored to the seabed or the rocks. Connected to the shore by slender walkways made up of boards and beams that are not perfectly connected, the trabocchi have an apparently precarious appearance but this guarantees lightness, balance and resistance to the force of the sea, in a beautifully preserved stretch of coast. Coves, promontories and jagged cliffs alternate with sandy (Ortona, Casalbordino, Vasto and San Salvo) or pebble beaches (Fossacesia, Torino di Sangro). The spectacular Via Verde Costa dei Trabocchi cycle and walking path runs along the disused railway line from Lido di Francavilla to San Salvo Marina.
Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts. Separated they live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large language ocean. A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia. It is a paradisematic country, in which roasted parts of sentences fly into your mouth.