Overview
Even though love letters are no longer written today, you will certainly have sent some during your life and sometimes miss them.
So come to visit the original Museo della Lettera d’amore (Love Letter Museum) in Torrevecchia Teatina, between Pescara and Chieti, on the very first hills close to the coast in the territory of Chieti. Here, “precious” sheets of paper filled with the words dictated by the heart relive in the dedicated spaces inside the eighteenth-century Palazzo Valignani, centrally located in the village.
Let’s explore, by appointment, the six rooms in which individual letters, epistolary letters and photos are exhibited with their passionate and sweet contents, full of expectations and promises. Two rooms house the epistolary-format testimonies dedicated to Pope John Paul II, left by the faithful at his coffin during the funeral ceremony. Don't miss the room where the romantic texts descend from above like a shower of words: this surely will leave you surprised and enchanted.
If your visit to the museum has inspired you to write, take the opportunity to participate in the international Love Letter competition, which is organised every year by a local association. You "simply" have to write a prose composition addressed to a real or imaginary recipient (person, animal, object, place, landscape).
Are you ready?
In the same palace – erected by Federico, Marquis of Cepagatti, around 1743, and designed according to classicist criteria perhaps inspired by the model of Villa d'Este in Tivoli, with a large garden of 5,000 square metres of vegetation – you can visit, by appointment, the exhibition of traditional Abruzzese clothing and textiles. This is a rich ethnographic collection of family weavings, costumes, cold-painted terracotta figurines, as well as drawings, paintings, prints and period photographs. All telling us of the various aspects of ancient time, life and culture in which the skilful hands of women accustomed to the ancient art of weaving, embroidery and sewing – once having obtained the yarns – made garments for the whole family.
As you can see, great attention is paid to goldsmith's craftsmanship, with jewellery and ornaments enriching the trousseaus on display. Unique and beautiful pieces often inherited or donated within the family, which represented not only a patrimonial asset, but also an allegorical, emotional and magical good.
But if you also have a sporting spirit, you can “fly” in the numerous green spaces and itineraries proposed by the municipality. For instance, you can visit the “Pinetina di Valle Paro”, between Torrevecchia and Castelferrato and with a magnificent panorama towards the Maiella and the Adriatic; or the “Pinetina Fontizze” that leads to another spectacular viewpoint that is, the Valle dell'Inferno, from which you can access the unpaved trails to be followed by bicycle, on foot or on horseback.
Remaining on the theme of tradition, let yourself be pampered by the typical cuisine of the province of Chieti with “maccheroni alla chitarra” served with a mixed ragout of beef, pork or lamb; with the so-called “rape (turnips) strascinate” that are first soaked in cold water, then boiled with browned garlic and lastly sautéed in a pan with oil and chilli pepper in abudance; with “fiadoni”, savory pies having a shape similar to that of ravioli and made with a mixture of eggs, oil, white wine and flour, and a filling of various cheeses – mainly hard ones such as rigatino and pecorino – eggs and various spices.
What else to see:
- The Church of San Rocco
- The Church of San Giuseppe
- The Church of San Pasquale