Overview
Casoli, in the province of Chieti, part of the Club of the Most Beautiful Villages in Italy, greets you from a hill on the Aventino river, reflecting on the artificial lake Sant'Angelo, where the rocky walls of the Maiella mountains descend to a sheer drop.
It is a magnificent picture that induces you to stay, to experience, to taste. To live Casoli.
As you can see, the village gathers around the Ducal Castle which, between the late 19th and early 20th century, hosted the Abruzzi 'Cenacolo' formed by some of the best representatives of culture and art of the time, including the painter Francesco Paolo Michetti, the sculptor Costantino Barbella, the journalist Edoardo Scarfoglio and, of course, the eclectic Gabriele d'Annunzio.
The municipality, owner of the manor house, has dedicated to these people the 'Stanza del Silenzio' (Silence Room), which houses a permanent exhibition regarding the protagonists of that era, and the 'Stanza d'Annunzio', where the Vate was often housed.
The mighty fortress, with the Tower representing the original part, was presumably built between the end of the 11th and the beginning of the 12th century on a 378-metre-high hill as a fortified outpost to control the valleys of the Aventino and Sangro rivers and to counter enemy attacks.
The elegant old town is home to aristocratic palaces, such as the 17th-century Palazzo Travaglini - De Vincentiis, the recently restored 18th-century Palazzo Tilli, with a beautiful carved stone portal, a row of balconies on the upper floors and a quadrangular inner courtyard, Palazzo Ricci, with its entrance portal framed by pilasters, and the 19th-century Palazzo De Cinque, with an archivolted portal and an elegant balcony on the main floor.
Before lunch, we recommend an excursion to the WWF Oasis of Serranella, located between the municipalities of Casoli, Altino and Sant'Eusanio del Sangro and characterised by a wetland area rich in biodiversity, very important for the stopover of migratory birds along the Adriatic route and for fauna in general.
The time has come to taste Casolana-style lamb, cut into small pieces, cooked in a pan and enriched with local herbs. Its flavour is enhanced by locally produced extra virgin olive oil, made from the Intosso olive, a particular variety that must be sweetened, 'ndossa in dialect, before being used.
A taste of porchetta casolana and one of coratella mantecata with eggs and pecorino cheese will do the trick. But you also have to try the pallotte di cacio pecorino, eggs and softened breadcrumbs, flavoured with herbs, first fried in olive oil and then tossed in a simple tomato sauce.
Before tasting the desserts, 'pick' the 'mela piana', a very old cultivation once appreciated throughout the Kingdom of Naples, so much so that it became synonymous with goodness and beauty, as Giovanni Boccaccio writes in the Decameron (book III, day 4) about 'Monna Isabetta, fresh and beautiful and rounded, who looked like a Casolan apple'.
Delicious sweets are the 'tòtere', cones made with a mixture of eggs, sugar and flour, fried in olive oil and filled with custard or chocolate, and the 'pezzelle', soft wafers of dough, cooked between the shells of a long-handled iron, previously heated over the fire.
What else to see:
- The Church of Santa Maria Maggiore.
- The Rancitti Casino