Lost In The Mountains - Barrea, Italy D'Abruzzo National Park

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A couple of pics from our Airbnb in Pescara on the coast, $37 USD

We had a great time along the eastern coast of Italy.  Our apartment was one of the best Airbnbs to date.  It was as if we were actually living there.  I could see us going there to spend the late Spring early Summer months there.  The host lives upstairs and answers every text in less than a minute.  She also came down our first night and got us started with the radiant heat.  It has been cold the last week.

Here we are, almost lost in the mountains and driving around on zigzag roads.  GPS showed the car just spinning in circles and there was a farmhouse along the road every kilometer or so.  We found an elderly Italian woman on her porch and stopped to ask for help.  We understood a few words but in essence she said to turn around and go back down the mountain.  We did, sent the map to the host and she got us on course.

We are at 3400 feet and it is 3C this morning.  Still dripping rain but not enough to keep us inside.  We met the host and she showed us around our studio apartment on the first floor of her house.  Very nice and warm.  We have had new things come up with Airbnb that we had never encountered before.  Here, she wanted to charge us for towels and we have to pay our gas usage which is on a meter.  We settled for the blankets and sheets and we pay the gas.  

We walked into the town, about three blocks away.  It is advertised as a medieval town.  Its roots go back to 700 BCE but the town as it sits today began to form around 1000 CE.  The church was built in 1300.  Barrea sits on a lake that was created in the 1950s, I assume as a resevoir.  The mountains above are covered in snow and the views are incredible.  

During the latter period the first feudal lords, Di Sangro family, began to take control of the region focusing on cattle production.  Sheep herding followed and opened up the pastoral routes, access to water, pastures and markets.  

The national park was established in the 1920s and at the start of WWII the town was evacuated.  During that period, Barrea was looted and robbed of just about everything.  At the end of the war, people began to return.  Today the population is around 720 people.  In 1984, the town was destroyed by an earthquake.  Again, the town was temporariy abandoned until reconstruction and today it is a well-known tourist area.

True to the culture, men gathering at noon while their wives shop in front for fresh bread, cheeses and salamis. 

We've come to the conclusion that Italians appear to be grouchy, never acknowledging you on the street or sayin hello.  The reason being are their pillows.  They must have continued to follow the Roman style of construction and make their pillows out of stone.  

Tomorrow we head for Naples for three nights and we will take a day trip to Pompei.  We were decided to go to Herculaneum but we have been told by many that it is run by the mafia and there are a lot of pickpockets.  Pompei it is.