Where We Are

Where Is Abruzzo ?

If it’s possible to be both easy to find – and off the beaten track – it’s Abruzzo.

Pretty well everybody knows where Rome is in Italy. Rather fewer know that if you leave the city and head east, within an hour you’ll be in Abruzzo.

The region is split into four provinces. Villasfor2 is in the southern province of Chieti, nestling comfortably between the Apennine mountains, and the Adriatic Sea.

Abruzzo is Rome's neighbour - but off the beaten tourist track
We're midway between the villages of Casoli and Sant'Eusanio

Putting Villasfor2 On The Map

Whereabouts in Chieti province are we ? Take a look at the road map. Locate the town of Casoli – near the bottom left-hand corner. Now let your eyes go up a little bit until you see Sant’Eusanio del Sangro.

Villasfor2 is roughly midway between the two. Easiest way to find out where we are is to do a search for ‘Villasfor2’ on Google Maps. Or if you want to be absolutely precise, our co-ordinates are 42.148800N; 14.294264E.

On the map you’ll also see Lanciano – that’s our nearest town of any size. It dates back to Roman times and hosts a series of excellent outdoor events throughout summer involving food, wine and music, rounded off with a famous medieval costume pageant in early September.

We’re an easy drive from the great beaches of the Adriatic coast. Bustling in high summer – but for the rest of the year, you’ll find there are times you might have everything pretty much to yourself.

To give you an idea of just how quiet it can be on the coast – take a look at the picture of the huge sandy beach at Le Morgie – about half-an-hour from us. Taken one afternoon in late April, when it was in the high 70’s.

One of those special Abruzzo spring days when you can ski in the morning; enjoy a leisurely lunch; and then relax on the beach in the afternoon.

Not many places in Europe where you can do that…

Our own home; our three villas; and our pool are set some 1200 feet up, on an acre of south-facing countryside, surrounded by olive groves and enjoying spectacular panoramic views from the Adriatic coast to the east; to the mountains of the nearby Majella National Park in the west; and stretching to distant hills on the horizon some 50km away.

We live in a tiny hamlet of no more than half-a-dozen old stone ruins, abandoned since the mid-1970s,  at the end of a quiet country lane.

(We bought a couple of these ruins in 2007. One – a huge, derelict house – has since been replaced by our own home. The other – a 19th century barn – has now been transformed into our three rental villas).

No passing traffic – in fact, no real traffic at all aside from tractors chugging to and from work in the fields and olive groves.

We have olive trees of our own around the pool, from which we produce just a few litres each year of our own organic, extra-virgin oil. Traditionally pressed in an oil mill in the centre of our local village, you’ll find a bottle of our oil in your villa’s kitchen.

Try it drizzled over some fresh local bread and sprinkled with a little salt. Delicious !

We’re only overlooked by the golden eagles, red kites and buzzards that glide down from the mountains in seach of prey. In summer, we’re entertained by Alpine Swifts, who like to use our pool as their local watering hole.

The Majella National Park is our back-drop
Even in great weather, our local beaches can be deserted
While our location is definitely rural – it’s certainly not remote. Just minutes away are our local shops, bank, petrol station, pharmacy and good places to eat and drink. When you arrive for your Villasfor2 holiday, we take you on a little drive round the neighbourhood in our car, so you can see where everything is.

Getting To Abruzzo

Flying

A good 75% of all Villasfor2 guests fly to Abruzzo.

From the UK, (and from many key points in Ireland and mainland Europe too), the easiest way to reach us is by flying with Ryanair to Pescara. From there, we’re an easy hour’s drive south.

Good alternatives to Pescara are Ancona – a little over a couple of hours to the north of us; and Bari – about the same distance south. Both are situated very close to the A14 autostrada, which runs north-south down the Adriatic coast, and make getting to us from any of these three airports really easy.

If your nearest airport doesn’t connect with Pescara, Ancona or Bari – or if you’re flying to Italy from further afield – either of Rome’s two airports (Ciampino or Fiumicino) are excellent alternatives, and also offer much more frequent flights.

Both will leave you with a highly scenic drive here of around three hours, all but the last 5km or so on autostrada/main roads.

The big advantage of flying into Rome of course is that it gives you the opportunity of spending a day or so in the city either on your way here, or on your way home. It’s a choice that a lot of our guests make.

Pescara Airport is our nearest

Driving

The majority of our guests living on mainland Europe – and quite a few from the UK as well – come to Abruzzo by car, and regard the drive as part of their holiday.

From the UK, you’d need a couple of stopovers en route (though if you’re sharing the driving, it’s perfectly possible to make do with just one).

From pretty much anywhere in Western Europe, a one night break on the way here seems to be the most-used option.

One of the big benefits of driving of course is not being restricted to airline baggage allowances, and being able to load-up with plenty of Abruzzo wine and other goodies to take home.

We have a great bus service linking us to Rome

Train

A realistic option if you want to keep driving to a minimum. Our nearest mainline station – Pescara again – is on Italy’s fast rail system and connects with Bologna, Turin and Milan. Trenitalia – Italy’s state-owned rail network – has a good online booking portal in English.

Coming here by train from Rome is definitely not recommended. While the main routes in Italy are serviced by the high-speed Frecce – (Arrows) – trains, astonishingly there’s no main line link across the country from Rome to the Adriatic. So the train journey here is a long and meandering one taking at least five hours in small local trains.

Bus

A comparatively recent introduction are extremely good – and good-value – bus links between central Rome and Lanciano. And from Ciampino and Fiumicino airports to Pescara.

If you come by train or bus however, you shouldn’t plan to continue using public transport once you’re here. Local bus services are primarily set-up to get people to and from work in and around towns, and outlying destinations – like us – tend to get very limited services. A car really is essential to get the full benefit from your Abruzzo holiday.