What are the distinctive features and peculiarities of Abruzzo? Where does the region's originality lie? Why is it unique, particular, exclusive, and what makes it different from any other region? Why should it be visited and explored? There are countless special characteristics, as we will see, but the chief reason that comes to mind now is that this region is intact and unfamiliar, so it is one of the few still able to gratify visitors with the priceless satisfaction of discovery, of innate intuition. First of all, the sheer extent of nature here: Abruzzo's three national parks, a regional park and over thirty nature reserves account for one third of its area and make it the greenest region in Europe. Moreover, its habitat contains 75% of the entire continent's flora and fauna species: an astonishing fact that delineates a precise regional identity. Then there is its territory: most of it pristine, a pure anthology of Italian landscapes, above all a seamless concentrate of Alpine and Mediterranean ecosystems. The 130km of coastline are counterbalanced by the two highest peaks in the Apennines (Gran Sasso and Majella), connected by the peninsula's mightiest, most complex system of mountain plateaux: Abruzzo could be called the "Tibet of Italy". Even in the Middle Ages this was the natural backdrop to the Abruzzo landscape, which has changed very little on the whole, and which makes it so special. An ancient landscape, of great humanity even in its most rugged traits, rooted in our memory like a fairy tale. Finally, its history, etched in the thousand castles that still watch over and dominate these timeless landscapes; the Medieval abbeys, in whose industrious silence the austere Christian spirit of this region was forged; its mountain pastures, travelled over the millennia by shepherds and their flocks; in the one hundred incredible hermitages where nature and faith continue to unite, now as in the past; in the multitude of picturesque villages, each clustered around its church, its tower, its castle. Not the history we find written in books, but the story told by the landscapes, the church façades, the ancient traditions, the unsophisticated, gentle candour of its people. So, the time has come to begin to explore this land of Abruzzo. It will be a memorable experience for those who seek to scratch the surface and turn the pages of memory.
