10303 castel manfrino

whilst weather is still good and maybe if you can afford to put the fuel in the car a trip that's worth mentioning is the drive up to valle castellana ... if you take the route from the teramo - ascoli piceno side the climb up between the twin mountains of Campli as you get close up to the castle allows plenty of areas to stop and picnic...is a favorite spot for Teramo families that don't want to eat at restaurants...lots of different spaces with tables and chairs all set up....

the actual castle sits in a pretty impressive position and although not a lot is left...it almost completely blends in with the surrounding rock faces... is worth a walk... just for the views...

if you continue on from the valle you can either go along to rocca santa maria or ceppo... both have roads that descend back to Teramo so you can make it a round trip...

what's also pleasant about this whole area is the amount of woodlands... even on a hot day its a pleasure be in the shade of the trees and at points the road reaches 1000 m asl so the air is generally fresh...

anyway will post some sites... to give you an idea of whats what...

oh yes...should mention food ... basically for good traditional eating ...of the mountain variety...funghi... its an area that cannot be faulted... friends have taken us to the Bosco Martese in rocca santa maria...run by anna maria and its a very well known trattoria.. with excellent food ...but there are a wealth to choose from once you get up there and all the drive from the valle castella through to either ceppo or rocca allows you to search out your own favorite

[url=http://www.castelmanfrino.it/]CASTELMANFRINO - Macchia da Sole di Valle Castellana (TE)[/url]

[url=http://www.roccasm.it/]Sito ufficiale del comune[/url]

should also mention that the valle holds the chestnut and potato festival...which comes up soon... have not looked for dates but its generally sept/oct time...

even though the roads takes you up quite high i would not say that its a bad road to drive...its wide and mostly well maintained... the roughest part is between valle castellana and the ceppo rocca main road... but again not that bad

and if you do not happen to live close there are plenty of places to stay...