Overview
If you love nature, landscapes and majestic silences, don't miss Vittorino, in the province of L'Aquila: a 'morsel' of a village rich in forests, with a vast panorama that embraces the Popoli Gorges and Mount Morrone, extending as far as the valley of Pettorano sul Gizio.
A visit to the emerald, green pine forest in which the village is immersed, halfway up Mount Castellano and very close to the Aterno River and the Pescara Springs Nature Reserve, should be noted in the agenda. Un paradiso in terra, ideale per il vostro soggiorno all’insegna del relax, della pace, della tranquillità.
Reach the highest part of the village, with the inhabited area of stone house-walls, which show some facades with mullioned windows, and with a series of buildings that follow the course of the hill. Further up the hill there are the ruins of the Longobard castle. This is the same fortress that, according to the Chronicon Casauriense, Vittorito possessed during the period of encastellation of the region, starting in 1076.
Visit the church of the Madonna del Borgo, which preserves precious frescoes and stuccos dating back to the beginning of the 15th century, but above all, the small and precious religious monument dedicated to St Michael Archangel, built in the 15th century following the expansion of an older church (9th-10th century), which was in turn built on top of an Italic temple possibly dating back to the 2nd century B.C. (of which, among the furnishings and sacred vestments, a podium found in 1967 is a fine example).
Inside, divided into three naves, you can admire the tabernacle decorated with fifteenth-century frescoes while many fragments from the Roman period placed in the monument are evidence of the nearby site of Corfinium, an ancient Italic town, capital of the Peligni people.
In San Sebastiano Street, you will find the small church of San Rocco, erected in the 16th century as a vow to the saint during the plague, with a façade in the style of L'Aquila's churches, with a late Romanesque round-headed portal and a lunette decorated with a gilded background in which St Roch and the dog stands out in the centre.
A bottle of the area's extra virgin olive oil, of the 'rustic and gentle' olive variety, thanks to which the village has been counted among the oil cities registered with the prestigious national association, is a must on your table to season your dishes. Have a bruschetta prepared with a drizzle of the prozed “drink”, the elixir of life of the Mediterranean diet, a world heritage site, and enjoy the goodness. But it’s only the beginning of a series of delicacies, typical of the region, which will enlighten you immensely.
What else to see:
- The Porta da piedi
- The church of Santa Maria in Borgo (the Virgin of the Snow)