Paulo froze and pointed along the mountain path ahead of us. “Look,” he cried, “bear droppings!” This was the most exciting discovery we had made all day. Better than the fox droppings, the roe deer droppings and even the Apennine wolf droppings we had found so far on our journey through Marsican brown bear country.
We were heading to the Jorio refuge, a walkers’ shelter 6,000ft high up in Italy’s Abruzzo national park and, while we didn’t spot an endangered bear in the flesh, I saw every kind of animal detritus I could ever have hoped for.
Set between the Apennines and the Adriatic, the Abruzzo has more national park territory than any other region in Europe. The wealth of nature here is said to include 80% of all of the continent’s flora and fauna species as well as chamois, ibex, golden eagle, wild boar and, of course, that elusive Marsican brown bear. We were soon at the refuge, gazing out over mountains dotted with tiny villages.
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“The Abruzzo is the only place where wildlife and people live together in this way,” said Paulo, our guide. In the nearby town of Pescasseroli, traditional practices include the seasonal movement of livestock, known as the transhumance. Visitors can buy the local cheeses first created to sustain shepherds on their long journey across the Molise region, south of Abruzzo, or take a seven-night walking tour that traces their ancient route (£498, ecotur.org).
Mass emigration in the mid-20th century means that the population here is notably lower than Italy’s national average. One of the consequences of the decline in Abruzzo’s once prosperous agricultural economy is that the area has remained largely untouched by modern development. It is rich in medieval buildings (the Santo Spirito hermitage, set at nearly 4,000ft in Roccamorice, is worth a visit unless you suffer from vertigo).
Salami, cheese, lentils, saffron and chilli are typical of the region and food here is served in small bursts, almost like tapas. On more than one occasion, I foolishly assumed — after three or so plates of cold meats, cheese, crepes and lentil soup — that dinner was over.
Those are just the warm-up. You’ll then usually be served lamb or maccheroni alla chitarra (literally “guitar pasta” — sheets of egg dough pushed through a guitar-like wooden box with strings) before dessert and traditional liqueurs made from grasses and roots.
The Sextantio hotel (sextantio.it) occupies several houses in the heart of Santo Stefano di Sessanio, allowing total immersion in the traditional mountain village lifestyle. It’s expensive, with rooms from £164 a night — the nearby four-star Hotel Campo Imperatore (hotelcampoimperatore.com) costs from £72 half-board and the four-star Garni Posta (garniposta.it) in Pescasseroli starts at £54 half-board — but from the stone-floored bedrooms and hard woollen mattresses to the medieval-style cultivation in the surrounding fields, staying here is like slipping back to the 16th century.
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The first thing you notice is the silence. Second is the smell: the scent of wood smoke wafts through the narrow streets during the day and hangs in the air long into the night. Great care has been taken to preserve the architectural character of the village and that, along with original limestone bricks and cobbled streets, includes log fires for heating. Santo Stefano’s restoration began several years ago but the effects of last year’s earthquake in the area added new damage, especially to the clock tower.
The Sextantio’s candle-lit restaurant, Locanda sotto gli Archi (00 39 0862 899 116), serves regional dishes with Montepulciano d’Abruzzo wine. Climbing to the 9,500ft summit of the nearby Gran Sasso d’Italia mountain might not be top of your “to do” list immediately after enjoying the locanda’s four-course tasting menu (£36pp including wine).
You could instead head to Castel Del Monte, a town famous for its pecorino, for a lesson in the art of cheese-making at the Mariano e Mariano Aromatario shop (00 39 0862 938 179). Here Maddalena Aromatario, an archaeologist by training, helps with the family business, using milk from local goats.
I’ll admit it was a slight concern that the award-winning cheese was crawling with flies. Maddalena waited until I was eating a chunk to tell me how the flies were integral to its production. They crawl inside the cheese to lay their eggs, and enzymes from the larvae create the distinctive flavour of the Cacio Marcetto — literally, “rotten cheese”.
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Details: Ryanair flies direct from Stansted to Pescara in Abruzzo (ryanair.com). Other airlines with services to Italy include easyJet (easyjet.com), British Airways (ba.com) and Alitalia (alitalia.co.uk).
Entry to the Abruzzo national park is free, although some protected areas may require a guide, costing from £15 for a group tour. More information from abruzzoturismo.it and italiantouristboard.co.uk