Tratturo Magno

Before Italy had motorways it had tratturi — grass highways up to 111 metres wide, protected by royal decree from the fifteenth century, along which shepherds moved hundreds of thousands of sheep between summer pasture in Abruzzo and winter grazing on the Tavoliere plain. The Tratturo Magno was the greatest of them: roughly 244 km from the doors of L'Aquila's basilica of Collemaggio, where flocks were blessed before the descent, to the customs house at Foggia. In 2019 UNESCO inscribed transhumance — the seasonal droving of livestock along routes like this one — on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage, on a joint bid by Italy, Austria and Greece. The listing honours a practice, not a monument, and in the high villages above the route the practice is still legible. Castel del Monte, a stepped medieval town at 1,346 metres under Campo Imperatore, is the natural base: its entire economy was wool and cheese, its lanes are built with covered passages (sporti) and stables under houses, and its five-site Museo Civico Etnografico Diffuso walks you from fleece to loom to sheepfold. A handful of shepherds still make canestrato cheese here, now a Slow Food Presidium. Below the town, the tratturo's finest surviving stretch crosses the Navelli plain past the Roman city of Peltuinum, its theatre wall standing in open grassland. Nobody will be there. That is not a slogan; post-2009-earthquake L'Aquila province is among the least-visited corners of Italy, and the emptiness is part of what the walk is about.

The historic calendar still shapes the year: flocks traditionally left for Puglia around late September — the feast of St Michael — and climbed back to the Gran Sasso in May, and since 2007 an association-led group walk has retraced the route in stages, usually starting from L'Aquila in autumn (check dates each year). May and June are best for walking the Navelli plain and the high pastures: orchids, poppies, working flocks newly arrived on Campo Imperatore. July and August are fine at altitude but hot on the lower Adriatic and Tavoliere stages. Castel del Monte's Notte delle Streghe, a theatrical night of witch-lore, fills the village on 17 August (check exact programme). September–October brings the descent season and clear light; the high sections can hold snow from November to April.

Train to L'Aquila is possible and pleasingly obscure: the single-track Terni–L'Aquila–Sulmona line, with connections at Terni (from Rome via Orte) or at Sulmona off the Rome–Pescara line — slow, occasionally replaced by bus during works (check current service). Honestly, most people arrive by coach: TUA and Flixbus run frequent direct services from Rome Tiburtina to L'Aquila in about 1h45. From L'Aquila, sparse TUA local buses climb to Castel del Monte and Santo Stefano di Sessanio; check the timetable the day before and expect gaps on Sundays (check ahead). Walkers finishing the whole route reach Foggia, a main-line hub with fast trains to Bari, Naples and Rome. There is no luggage-transfer industry here; travel light.

Sextantio Albergo Diffuso in Santo Stefano di Sessanio is the famous one — rooms scattered through a part-restored medieval village, wool blankets, candlelight, and the project that started Italy's scattered-hotel movement; it books out, so reserve ahead. In the same village, La Bifora e le Lune is a small, warm B&B run by a local family (check availability). In Castel del Monte itself, the family-run Albergo Parco Gran Sasso pairs simple rooms with a restaurant serving the town's pastoral cooking (check current opening). Down on the tratturo near Capestrano, Tenuta il Guerriero offers agricamping and glamping pitches for walkers (check season). Along the middle and lower stages, accommodation thins out badly — plan each night before you start.

This is cucina di pastori. The flagship is canestrato di Castel del Monte, a raw-milk pecorino aged in woven baskets, made by the last few shepherd-cheesemakers who still graze Campo Imperatore — a Slow Food Presidium you can buy in the village. Arrosticini, skewers of mutton grilled over coals, were invented as drovers' food and are eaten by the dozen with bread and olive oil. The Navelli plain the tratturo crosses grows Zafferano dell'Aquila DOP saffron and prized chickpeas; Santo Stefano di Sessanio has its own tiny mountain lentil, another Slow Food Presidium, served as soup with a thread of oil. Finish with a caciotta, local honey, and Montepulciano d'Abruzzo carried up from the coast side.

Walk the tratturo — that is the point. The best-preserved section runs about 44 km in two to three days from Peltuinum, past Prata d'Ansidonia, Caporciano, Civitaretenga and the drovers' church of Santa Maria dei Cintorelli (check access), to the Forca di Penne pass: dirt roads, meadow and Roman ruins, with GPX tracks essential since waymarking is partial. Peltuinum itself deserves an unhurried hour, with its Augustan-era theatre, stretches of wall and the footings of a temple thought to have been Apollo's, standing in open grassland with nobody around; further on the route passes the church of San Paolo and the old monastery of San Vito. Ambitious walkers do all ten stages to Foggia, about 244 km. Start, symbolically, at L'Aquila's Collemaggio basilica, where the droves began.

In Castel del Monte, take the five-site Museo Civico Etnografico Diffuso — La Casa Antica, L'Arte della Lana, Il Forno del Ballo, La Pastorizia and Il Lavoro nei Campi — which walks you from fleece to loom to sheepfold through restored houses in the lanes; entry is free, hours are concentrated on weekends and in August, and visits outside them are arranged by request (check ahead). Buy canestrato from a producer while you are there. Nearby, climb to Rocca Calascio, the castle at around 1,400 metres above the tratturo country; the classic approach is the easy hour on foot from Santo Stefano di Sessanio, passing the octagonal church of Santa Maria della Pietà, with no water or shade on the way. Above it all, ride or walk the vast grasslands of Campo Imperatore where the flocks summer.

Two detours are worth building in. At Bominaco, below Caporciano, the Oratorio di San Pellegrino was frescoed in 1263 under Abbot Teodino and is painted floor to vault, including the Bominacense Calendar of peasant labours, zodiac signs and feast days; the Romanesque Santa Maria Assunta beside it holds a pulpit of 1180 signed by the master Nicodemo. Access depends on a local custodian, so arrange it in advance. Down on the plateau, the saffron is Zafferano dell'Aquila DOP: flowers picked at dawn in the second half of October, stigmas stripped by hand and toasted over almond or oak embers, some 200,000 flowers to the kilo, sold direct by the Navelli cooperative. In L'Aquila itself, MAXXI L'Aquila opened in 2020 in the restored Palazzo Ardinghelli near the Fontana delle 99 Cannelle, and is the clearest sign that the city is coming back.

• Language: Italian only in most villages; English works at Sextantio and with younger guides.
• Currency: Euro. Few ATMs between L'Aquila and the coast stages; carry cash for B&Bs and cheese.
• Navigation: No continuous official waymarking — download GPX tracks (italiadeicammini.it) before leaving; phone signal is patchy in the high valleys.
• Buses: TUA local buses link L'Aquila with Castel del Monte and Santo Stefano; few runs, fewer on Sundays — screenshot the timetable (check ahead).
• Sheepdogs: White guardian dogs work the flocks: stop, stand quietly, skirt wide; never run or throw anything.
• Water: Springs are scarce on the Navelli plain and lower stages in summer — carry at least two litres.
• Season: High sections around Campo Imperatore can be snowbound November–April; lower Adriatic stages are hot in high summer.
• Earthquake recovery: Rebuilding from the 2009 quake is ongoing; some village centres are partly scaffolded or closed.
• Festival: Notte delle Streghe, Castel del Monte, 17 August — the one night the village is genuinely crowded (check programme).