Overview
Taste a drop of its oil and hold it in your mouth for a few seconds. Its flavor will embrace you with fruity and "spicy" notes. Now smell it.
Hints of artichoke and tomato emanate from that single green drop, which is not simple oil, but the extra virgin from Pianella, in the province of Pescara: a precious juice obtained from a variety of medium-early ripening olives, which the Romans already called "straight".
You are in one of the three localities of the so-called "Golden Triangle of Oil" which, together with Moscufo and Loreto Aprutino, gives birth to the Aprutino-Pescarese Extra Virgin DOP. An elixir of long life, nourished by the sea and mountain breezes that meet on the hillsides of Pianella.
Get ready, then, to savor it at one of the many oil mills in the area and stock up to take home: it's a beneficial and intelligent shopping spree centered on a prince of the Mediterranean Diet, protected by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. We also recommend that you buy vegetables and vegetables in oil, sweetly flavored with natural spices, to enjoy as an appetizer with bruschetta, or as a side dish or even to stuff sandwiches and flatbreads. A way to continue to experience and remember your stay in Pianella once you return home.
A member of the national "City of Oil" association, since the 1100s the Pescarese town was at the center of the green gold trade (in addition to wine, wool, cereals and pecorino cheese) with the Venetians, Genoese and Florentines, times when it was called Castrum Planellae and had a fort.
Stroll through the centre at a tourist's pace, partly because Pianella is one of those so-called "slow" towns and is part of the Italian network of the Cities of Good Living: its quiet beauty unfolds harmoniously among its ancient palaces, public and private, with bulging grated balconies, imposing portals, windows embellished with sculptural lintels and pediments, coats of arms, porticos, doorways and various ornaments.
One example is the City Hall portal, dated 1625, with a classical-baroque character, stone ornaments and figurines holding up stone with Latin inscriptions. Visit St. Anthony Dei Carmelitani Parish, of ancient origins, transformed at different times, and St. Angelo Church, on the outskirts, possibly built around 331-340 on the remains of a temple of Vesta. The brick facade is decorated with a rich stone portal adorned with Romanesque sculptures and an artistic rose window with meticulously carved sunburst columns. Inside, with three naves, admire the remains of valuable frescoes from the 12th, 14th, and 15th centuries.
At the table, among other dishes, arrosticini await you, whose territory of origin, according to some scholars, is that straddling the municipalities of the Voltigno area, including Pianella.
So you are "at home" of the "rustell": slowly enjoy the sheep morsels, which, alternating with bits of fat, melt in your mouth. Happiness is also this.
What else to see:
- The Church of St. Dominic
- The Chapel of St. Ciriaca
- The Civic Tower
- The Church of Carmine
- The Museum of Abruzzo Ceramic Craftsmanship