Overview
Ready to hit the road and get lost among valleys and high horizons? Follow us along State Highway 81 Picena Aprutina, which leads from Teramo to Chieti. With a detour of about a kilometer, you reach the picturesque village of Arsita, which stands on a small hill over the Fino valley, below the Mount Camicia group. You are on the eastern slope of the Gran Sasso d'Italia, which defines and fills the scenery of the area.
The town is rich in history, once a place of settlement of the Vestini people, later a feud of the house of Este: traces of the past, which are still expressed by its typical structure of a fortified village jutting out over a splendid panorama at an altitude of about 500 meters. You can "breathe in" the view by going to the highest point of the historic center where a panorama opens up embracing Mount Camicia and Corno Grande, the highest peak in the Apennines and, further away, Pizzo di Sevo and Mount Vettore. To the left towers the bell tower of Atri's monumental cathedral and, further ahead, Città Sant'Angelo and a section of the Pescara River valley. In a word, you are enjoying with your eyes, but also with your heart, part of the provinces of Teramo and Pescara, with a taste of that of Ascoli Piceno.
Visit the church of Santa Vittoria whose 19th-century facade (never finished) covers the previous one, with the portal still in view. The eighteenth-century, single-nave interior offers you a number of statues, including that of St. Nicholas of Bari, patron saint of the village, inserted in the side aedicules, and an oval painting representing Santa Vittoria and Madonna delle Grazie. Outside, on the other hand, you can admire the partially preserved 18th-century chapel of the Holy Trinity, with a portal with wooden doors whose panels depict angels and sea monsters of popular inspiration.
Also worth seeing is the 16th-century church of Santa Maria d'Aragona with obvious modern additions on the main front. From the religious monument comes a beautiful painted terracotta (now kept in the parish church), depicting a Madonna and Child on her lap with jointed hands and movable body, made in 1531 and restored in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Even at the table, beautiful Arsita offers "high horizons." Taste the area's gastronomic specialties, such as "maccheroni alla molinara," also known as "maccheroni alla mugnaia", which come in the form of a long spaghetti noodle gathered into a skein, or "coatto", an ancient pastoral dish cooked with sheep meat and celebrated every year in a festival in August.