The Seven Sisters

Silvi, Pineto, Roseto, Giulianova, Tortoreto, Alba Adriatica and Martinsicuro. These towns are pop­u­lar­ly known as the Seven Sisters of the Teramo coast, where a wide beach acts as a back­drop to the sea that con­stant­ly dis­plays the blue flag of the euro­pean Union. Tourism in Abruzzo was born here in the sec­ond half of the ninen­teen­th cen­tu­ry, wehn the Adriatic rail­way was built, gen­er­at­ing the­se towns.
From then on, the coun­tri­fied mid­dle class­es and the aris­toc­ra­cy dis­cov­ered the beau­ty of the coastal pine forest and the enchant­i­ng sea, and so a new life began for the Seven Sisters. Nowadays, every year, hun­dreds of thou­sands of tourists chose to spend their sum­mer hol­i­days in this part of Abruzzo, with its strong tra­di­tions and state of the art facil­i­ties.

Let us begin our jour­ney in Silvi, the ancient wood­ed Silva whose old town is pre­served like a jew­el, and where, dur­ing sum­mer evenings, tourists enjoy the sea breeze and a view that embraces the whole coast­line. Travelling north along the road flanked by camp­sit­ed and old noble homes, we come across the ancient sight­ing tow­er of Cerrano, which dates back to the thir­teen­th cen­tu­ry. It stands on the site of a busy ancient port that used to serve the whole area. The scenery here is enchant­i­ng, with a wide beach that is shel­tered by a tamarisk thick­et and Mediterranean pine trees. The beach oppo­site the tow­er is the place where the young gen­er­a­tions chise tospend evenings lis­ten­ing to music, drink­ing san­gia and watch­ing shoot­ing stars. Today the tow­er is the sym­bol of this stretch of coast­line, where mankind seems to have stopped as its entrance, not want­i­ng to enter and dis­turb the real own­ers of this place:  the shoot­ing stars, the birds and the sound of the waves.
Today the tow­er, with its east­ern out­li­nes, hous­es an obser­va­to­ry that par­tic­u­lar­ly requires silence and peace. The beach and sea in front of the Tower is a Marine Protected Area with its rules in order to pro­tect and pre­serve its flo­ra and fau­na.

Pineto is silent, too, rest­ing between the crys­tal sea and an ancient pine forest, it is the sec­ond city of the Terre del Cerrano (Cerrano Lands) area, which joins the coastal pine wood­ed area to Atri, a real jew­el of Roman ori­gins, which rivals Adria in the Veneto region, the town which the Adriatic sea was named after. Even thought it is not by the sea, the ancient Hatria was once a very impor­tant town whose influ­ence extend­ed over the whole Northern Abruzzo, and its port, which was just a few kilo­me­tres away from the city, was one of the mst pow­er­ful in the area. Nowadays the town of Atri hous­es the Duchy Palace, which belonged to the anti-Turkish hero Giovangirolamo d’Acquaviva, as well as a munic­i­pal the­atre, which was recent­ly restored, and which dates back to the Italian Risorgimento peri­od. Atri is also par­tic­u­lar­ly famed as a liquorice-pro­duc­ing dis­trict.

Continuing fur­ther North we find Roseto (rose gar­den), anoth­er town that takes its name form the lush nat­u­ral sur­round­ings of this area, and yet anoth­er well-estab­lished tourist resort. Until the end of the nine­teen­th cen­tu­ry, this impor­tant town was in the hills, and was called Rosburgo: the con­truc­tion of the rail­way caused the res­i­den­tial area to move into the val­ley. Roseto offers a wide range of var­ied enter­tain­ment thanks to its numer­ous bars and dis­cos and the events that it holds in the medieval area of Montepagano, aìsuch as Calici sot­to le stelle (Chalices under the stars) in July-August (depoend­ing on the orga­ni­za­tion), which is pro­mot­ed by the Movement for wine-tourism.

Giulianova is the most impor­tant of the sev­en sis­ters. This Roman city was once linked to the dom­i­na­tion of Hatria, and today it is a point of ref­er­ence for the Navy of the Middle Adriatic. Some of the most renowned fish restau­rants in the cen­tral Italy are to be found along its seafront. Travelling north­wards the last three seaside resorts are Alba Adriatica, Tortoreto and Martinsicuro, towns that nowa­days offer first rate hotels and tourist facil­i­ties. Many fam­i­lies (Italian and fore­sign­er) come here as this final stretch of coast­line also has an impres­sive vari­ety of enter­tain­ment, from one of the largest water parks in Italy (Onda Blu) to dis­cos that are part of the most pop­u­lar dee­jay cir­cuits.

Text from “Adria Waves Abruzzo 2/06″