Overview
Amid steep wooded slopes, on the road from Sulmona to Campo di Giove, Cansano appears high on a hill, squeezed into the valley between the Maiella and Mount Rotella.
The ideal destination for you, nature lovers.
The hamlet, in the province of L'Aquila, is surrounded by extensive beech forests inhabited by wolves and bears, which the Maiella National Park Authority observes and protects on a daily basis.
The animals are the true citizens of the area, who make this rugged and wild part of Abruzzo special, real and vital. You are on the western slope of the Mother Mountain, furrowed by paths and trails, which you can safely explore.
All the information, and related materials, is issued by the Park's Hiking Centre, in Cansano, where hiking instructors and medium-mountain guides from the Collegio Regionale Guide Alpine d'Abruzzo organize guided hikes in all seasons.
In the village, which has a medieval appearance, with the ruins of a castle evoking that era, visit the Documentation Centre in the main village square (open daily in summer). It houses artifacts from various excavation campaigns from the archaeological area of Ocriticum, not far from the village. In fact, this is a site of Italic-Roman age, with a necropolis and a sanctuary, located along the road that, skirting the slopes of the imposing fortified centre of Colle Mitra (the highest point of a hill system located in the southeastern end of the Peligna basin), connected the Roman city of Sulmo (Sulmona) with Sannio.
The ancient settlement had its heyday between the late 4th century B.C. and the mid-2nd century A.D.
Admire the museum's exhibition hall divided into seven showcases that collect pre-protohistoric material evidence, such as grave goods and especially votive objects found in temple deposits, clay figurines, heads, balsamware and glass fragments.
On the ground floor, you will find a permanent exhibition on emigration, especially that to America in the late 1800s and early 1900s that involved more than 1,500 Cansano citizens, with a rich collection of more than 500 images and dozens of documents. In one corner you will find the stories of Abruzzese personalities, men of letters and writers, who left their mark, such as John Fante or Pascal D'Angelo, whose families emigrated to America.
Of the village's churches, the only one that is open, but only for a few events during the year, is the one dedicated to San Nicola, protector of miners, shepherds and emigrants, whose cult is deeply felt by the community.
The others are waiting to become habitable again after the 2009 earthquake, and if you go back to Cansano you will be able to visit them.
While waiting, you should take care of yourself with traditional dishes, such as "sagne" and lamb meat. Just for starters.