Property in Abruzzo

This beautiful central Italian region, less than a couple of hours’ drive from Rome, remains one of Italy’s best-kept secrets. Few foreign visitors crowd the scenic towns and villages of Abruzzo. Property in Abruzzo, furthermore, is among the most affordable in Italy.

With one-third of its landscape given over to natural parkland, this is one of Europe’s greenest regions and its ruggedly beautiful landscape make it perfect for nature lovers. Anyone who chooses to buy an Abruzzo property will find this a region of glorious contrasts.

The hinterland boasts the Gran Sasso National Park, with the imposing Gran Sasso mountains, and the Maiella National Park, featuring the towering Monte Maiella and bordered by spectacular canyons. Yet just a few miles away lies Abruzzo’s 80-mile coast along the Adriatic Sea, including some of Italy’s most inviting sandy beaches at Francavilla al Mare, Alba Adriatica and Martinsicuro.

For anyone thinking of buying property in Italy there are countless natural attractions in choosing a holiday home or investment property in Abruzzo. Yet the numbers who do so are – so far – nothing like as high as they should be, which has helped keep Abruzzo’s real estate prices low.

After decades of economic difficulty, Abruzzo finally found its economic feet in the 1970s through tourism and agriculture. The tourists flock to the shores while the hinterland has been developed in a more sensitive and organic fashion. Farming is concentrated on the eastern side of Abruzzo and the main produce here tends to be wheat, potatoes, olives and grapes.

While the beaches around Pescara and Ortona draw the sunseekers, many people who buy Abruzzo property will be just as awe-struck by the 375,000 acres that make up the Gran Sasso National Park – Abruzzo’s most popular inland area. The sprawling parkland offers a multitude of biking and hiking trails. Then there is the giant mountain range. Its tallest peak is the 9,609ft Il Corno Grande. In all there are 20 peaks within 12 miles of one another, each more than a mile high and for six months of the year spectacularly covered in snow.

The stunning landscapes of the Gran Sasso’s Campo Imperatore plateau, 6,600ft above sea level, mean skiers find themselves perfectly at home in Abruzzo. Indeed, Abruzzo also boasts no fewer than 21 ski resorts. The Gran Sasso is immensely popular with filmmakers as well and the 1980s Sean Connery movie The Name of The Rose was shot here, among others.

Further south lies the heavily forested Maiella National Park, its hundreds of memorable walking trails – many of them accessible from medieval towns such as Sulmona and Pescasseroli – immensely popular with hikers and nature-lovers. It remains one of Italy's most impressive wildernesses and is home to bears, wolves and more than 100 indigenous species of flora and fauna.

If you are interested in Abruzzo property you may also want to take a look at:
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