Sulmona

Sulmona, birthplace of Ovid and capital of the sugared almond, spreads across the Peligna valley beneath the Morrone massif. Medieval aqueducts, monastic complexes and Celestinian hermitages give this mountain city an artistic depth unusual for its size — and a food culture worth the detour alone.

Why visit

Once nicknamed the Siena of the Abruzzi for its wealth of churches and palaces, Sulmona remains one of central Italy’s most rewarding small art cities. It sits inside the Maiella National Park, ringed by mountains yet anchored by a vast, airy Piazza Garibaldi crossed by the arches of a medieval aqueduct. History runs from Roman Sulmo — the birthplace of the poet Ovid — through the age of the Celestine monks to a living tradition of confetti, the sugared almonds documented here as far back as the fourteenth century. Add a working food valley famed for its red garlic, and the city earns the regional tourist board’s description as a destination for all seasons of life.

Character and history

“Sulmo mihi patria est,” wrote Ovid in the first century BC: rich in fresh waters, a phrase that still defines a city built around springs and fountains. Roman traces survive in the Domus di Arianna and in the hillside sanctuary of Hercules, but the city’s dominant personality is medieval and religious. On Monte Morrone above town, the hermit Pietro Angelerio — later Pope Celestine V — founded the Celestine order, building the great abbey at Badia below his hermitage of Sant’Onofrio. For centuries the Abbey of Santo Spirito al Morrone was the congregation’s most important settlement and the cultural centre of a wide territory. In the Middle Ages Sulmona also ran a celebrated goldsmith school, a craft that survives in the jewellery shops of Corso Ovidio alongside the confetti boutiques.

What to see

Start on the Piazza Garibaldi, one of the longest squares in southern Italy, framed by the gothic arches of the Medieval Aqueduct and the front of Santa Chiara. A few steps away, the Cathedral of San Panfilo — the oldest and most important church of the city and mother church of the diocese — keeps the relics of its patron in the crypt, despite centuries of rebuilding after earthquakes.

The Complex of the Santissima Annunziata gathers the city’s civic collections, including the museum of folk costume and transhumance, a fitting introduction to the shepherd economy of the Apennines. Along Corso Ovidio you pass palazzi, the Fontana del Vecchio near the old southern walls, and the Praetorian Palace. For the Celestinian story, drive or walk five kilometres to the Celestine Abbey of Santo Spirito a Morrone, then climb higher to the Hermitage of Sant’Onofrio al Morrone, the hermit’s own refuge, with the Archaeological Area of the Sanctuary of Hercules Curinus on the same mountainside. In town, the Pelino Museum of Confectionery Art and Technology reconstructs an eighteenth-century confetti workshop, mortars and syrup sieves included, and the Church of Santa Maria della Tomba anchors Piazza Plebiscito.

How to experience

Time your visit for market day or, better, for the Giostra Cavalleresca, the summer renaissance tournament that fills Piazza Garibaldi with colours and horses. Walk the medieval gates circuit — Porta Napoli, Porta Molina and their companions — to read the shape of the old walled city. Shop Corso Ovidio for confetti and gold jewellery, then eat Peligna valley cooking: maccheroni alla chitarra with lamb sauce, sagne and beans, sheep arrosticini, and the red garlic of Sulmona that Pliny already praised. Serious walkers can follow the Sentiero dello Spirito, a long-distance route linking the Celestinian hermitages of the Morrone and Maiella; ask at the park information point in town for current conditions.

Practical planning

Sulmona has its own railway station on the Rome–Pescara line, about five minutes’ walk from the cathedral, making it one of the easiest mountain cities to reach without a car. The historic centre is flat compared with most Abruzzese hill towns, so cycling and strollers work well. The abbey at Badia charges admission and closes one day a week; verify hours on the ministry portal cultura.gov.it before you go, as they change seasonally. Come in late June for the Celestinian amnesty celebrations in the wider region, or in spring when the valley greens. The municipal tourism portal turismo.comune.sulmona.aq.it lists events, though it may be intermittently offline.

Nearby places

Nearby, Scanno waits up the Sagittario gorges, Pacentro with its castle in the valley below the Morrone, Pescocostanzo on the high road towards the Alta Sangro, and the national-park village of Villetta Barrea to the south-east.