Overview
Walkers from all over the world, come to Scoppito, in the province of L'Aquila, which is about 14 kilometres away. In fact, in recent years the Municipality has invested in the promotion of its mountains, such as the mountain group of Mount Calvo, 1898 metres above sea level, a site of community interest in the central Apennines, located on the border between Lazio and Abruzzo, to be explored with strong and trained legs.
There are many paths, which are articulated near the Macchialunga hill, equipped with benches, signs, protective wooden fences that allow you to have a healthy exploration of the relief and its surroundings. You can rent a mountain bike in Sella di Corno, a hamlet of Scoppito, with its natural park and a lake for sport fishing, or go horseback riding, discovering new landscapes that only horse racing can offer.
Even for you, camper lovers, there is a beautiful, equipped area, to fully enjoy, en plein air, all the surrounding nature.
The beauty is reaching the cross that points to the sky on the summit of the mountain and resting in the recovered Monte Calvo refuge, available to hikers, mountaineers and bikers.
You are in the ancient territory of the Sabines, an indigenous population who inhabited the Apennines, building towns such as Amiternum and Foruli (remembered by Virgil among the places that supported Turnus against Aeneas), the current hamlet of Civitatomassa, which in Roman times intertwined their history with that of Scoppito.
Consider that in 1956 the skeleton of a mammoth was found in the countryside around the village, which is now exhibited in the 16th-century castle in L'Aquila, which houses the Munda, the National Museum of Abruzzo. You can admire its bone structure, but only during the extraordinary visits organized by the museum, still under restoration, after the 2009 earthquake.
While waiting to visit the church of San Giacomo Apostolo, from the 14th century, located along via Amiternum, still inaccessible, reach the abbey of San Bartolomeo in the Casale district, built in the 13th century with an external stone cladding, the interior with vaults barrel vault, the baroque altars, the wooden pulpit. The church of San Giovanni in Civitatomassa, from the 15th century, with a Renaissance façade and portal, is also worth a visit.
Sella di Corno also awaits you with its long story to tell. In the square you can see the milestone which indicates, in Roman miles, the distance from the eternal city: LXXII (i.e. 72). After the destruction of Amiternum by the Romans in 293 BC, the surviving population also took refuge in the Corno valley, so called because in the centre of the territory stands a horn-shaped hill, on which a fortification was built where the town it expanded in the following centuries.
An area rich in the past, but also in the good flavours of tradition, such as lentil soup, fettuccine, mushrooms and truffles and lamb alla Cacciatora.
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What esle to see:
- The archaeological site of Amiternum
- The Roman Bridge