Overview
Tiny is Brittoli, which stands on a rocky outcrop at the foot of the Gran Sasso d'Italia, between the Cigno and Nora rivers, but numerous cultural and natural assets are preserved in its territory included in the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park.
Try it to believe it and climb all the way up here about 800 metres above sea level to hear its history first, because even the smallest piece of stone has one.
Legend has it that the village's fortress was founded in the 1st century B.C. with the name Prutum Britto, a vernacular transformation of ancient Prutum, from which the name is probably derived. Destroyed in the Middle Ages, it was rebuilt by the Franks on the site where it currently stands and then ruled by the bishops of Penne in the 11th and 12th centuries. Later, in the 15th century, came the Cantelmo family, who in 1588 ceded the town to the D'Afflitto family, an ancient lineage originally from Amalfi, and then in the 18th century, it was the royal administration that took control.
Here we are in our time when Brittoli, with several hamlets (San Vito, Boragne, Cerqueglio, Cona, Fonte Moro, Introdacqua, Forcella, Pagliaro Di Tono, Peschiole, Spinaci) offers you a series of religious and civil monuments to visit. For example, the parish church dedicated to S. Carlo Borromeo, which was founded in 1126 but, following numerous restorations, it currently has a neoclassical appearance. The private aristocratic chapel dedicated to St. Anthony, attached to the 16th-century baronial Palazzetto, around which the entire old village is clustered.
Also visit the small church of Sant'Antonio, with its characteristic rustic facade in rough stone, and the recently restored oil mill, where you can relive the ancient tradition of oil production, that took place with the pushed millstone of mules.
Immerse yourself in the surrounding area where, at Ponte Masciarello, you will find a spring, possibly sulphurous, called by the locals the "source of the smelly Water."
To be explored is the Piana del Voltigno, a karst basin surrounded by extensive ancient beech forests, pastures and sinkholes, southeast of the park, where you can witness the so-called "dancing tuft," as the locals call it. It is a layer of peat (a block of plant material consisting of marsh plants, only partially decomposed) floating on the surface of a small pool of water, now almost completely buried.
A rare vestige of what remains of the wetland environment, the peat bog, found in few other areas of the park.
Your reward, after so much exploring, is the joy of local food, such as "pallotte cacio e uova" and pecorino cheese. Gluttonous Happiness.