27.10.2020 - I used to be a feudal lord

27.10.2020

Dear friends,

If there is nothing about a city in a travel guide and only the nearby beaches are mentioned, there might be a reason for that.

We started our day way too early today. It wasn't even seven o'clock yet and I was already awake. With surprisingly high energy, we realized that Italians, just like us, are fair-weather athletes, because there wasn't a single car in our parking lot and yesterday evening it was swarming with athletes and walkers. Relaxed as the morning sun, we had our breakfast and admired the still picturesque sky. As the walking club started to arrive, we set off to our first destination: Pescara.

A quite large city, as we could tell from the freely drivable highway, and usually we have never been disappointed by such cities when it comes to culture. But today we actually discovered a completely modern city. A city similar to what you can find in our own country, without narrow old town streets or big stone buildings; just skyscrapers, wide roads, and beautiful modern bridges. But what the city couldn't offer us, the surrounding mountains did. A single table mountain surrounded by towering peaks, with occasional gaps in the clouds that illuminated only one valley.

After finding our way out of the city, we headed away from the coast to Santo Stefano di Sessanio, a small beautiful medieval village located near an old castle ruin that I absolutely wanted to see.

The mountains, which seemed to get higher with each kilometer, shimmered in all the colors of autumn. Rust-red hilltops and sun-yellow cliffs made way for seemingly bleeding mountains and flame-orange valleys. The array of colors seemed endless, while the mountain walls gleamed brightly whenever the sun hit them. The road was also far from bad. Based on our previous experiences, the small passes could get quite tight, but here we were almost alone and the paths were relatively wide. Moreover, we suddenly entered an area where there are castles everywhere. Today, I saw my first quirky castle, which simply stood in the middle of the slope and yet wanted to enclose a large steep forecourt with its walls.

Our first stop in this picturesque landscape was Popoli (yes, Po), also a beautiful little village with a very interesting church. From the outside, it looked completely normal, but inside it had no decorations, only white stone, and all the paintings were in a golden tone, and the statues fit perfectly into the niches, with even some of the modern paintings smoothly blending into the overall picture. Truly a very successful interior design, which tried something completely new, and I liked it.

Afterwards, we passed by a village that occupied the entire mountain, starting from the valley, with the houses lined up so closely together that they seemed to lift the actual slope a few meters above the ground. When we finally arrived at our destination, we immediately set off to go to the town, which is definitely worth a visit. The town consists only of small alleys, endless paths leading nowhere, and unfortunately lots of construction sites. Three cranes were constantly rotating to restore some of the buildings and also the city's landmark, the tower. Unfortunately, we couldn't really see it because of that, but the castle itself is simply beautiful. I am a real fan. When we finally found our way out of the maze of alleys, now we only had to find the hiking trail that would lead us to Rocco Calascio. Easier said than done, but eventually, after seeing a completely wrong sign and a sign spinning in the wind, we found it. Quickly put on something warmer and off we went. Well equipped for wind and icy cold, we started the ascent. Yes, we climbed the mountain with our jackets on. I sweated, cursed, Dad tried to make me wear his scarf, I realized the stupidity of modern poems, came up with two poems myself, and eventually enjoyed the view.

After about five kilometers, we reached our destination and it was truly breathtaking. I love castles. With enthusiasm, I explored every corner of the ruin only to realize that it was much bigger than I could have imagined because from above, you could still see many more parts that I hadn't discovered yet. Then we encountered a lonely dog, which surely belonged to the shepherd in the valley, and started making our way back because the sun now sets faster than expected and we didn't feel like looking for the way in the dark. But we couldn't just take the same route back, so we had to try something new. After Dad was convinced that we were on the wrong path and I suggested going down the slope because going downhill is easier, the road made a turn and we could already see Santo Stefano behind the next mountain.

Almost half an hour before sunset, we finally arrived at our camper van and still had enough time to choose a spot nearby to watch the sun.

See you soon, and autumn comes faster than one would expect.