Have a lovely journey!

The Sleeping Beauty of Abruzzo Morena Giannascoli If I told you: "The Sleeping Beauty" what would you think? The Walt Disney animated film or perhaps the fairy tale written by Charles Perraul. Instead I think of Abruzzo, Italy, where legends never die and where the Sleeping Beauty is the profile of the massive Gran Sasso Mountain seen from the Pescara area. From this perspective the Corno Grande and Mount Camicia are aligned to form respectively the face and breast of a woman lying on her back. With the clear sky and the sunset it becomes a wonderful scenario featured in many postcards and even in this beautiful youtube video that went viral on the web.  According to the legend, the Goddess Maja fled from Phrygia and arrived in the harbour of a town called Ortona (read also Abruzzo Trabocchi ) with her giant son Hermes, wounded in battle. They took refuge on the mountain tops and she tried to cure him with her maternal love using medicinal herbs, however the sno...

ABRUZZO TRABOCCHI By Morena Giannascoli Long time ago, on the Adriatic coast, fishermen erected wooden constructions clinging to the rock to capture the best of the marine fauna. These fishing machines made of logs and ropes are called trabocchi, and they follow each other with the joy and whim of youth from Ortona to Fossacesia, a coastline that today represents one of the wonders of the Mediterranean: the Coast of Trabocchi. From the hills above them, among scented brooms, olive groves and vineyards rich in their precious fruits covering the landscape, you can see these strange creatures that from the coast stretch out to the sea through a wooden pier. They seem like spiders intent on running their feet in blue waters and with antennas protruding forward to find the best fish. Over the years, many artists have represented the trabocchi in their works: painters, writers, photographers. Gabriele D'Annunzio also wrote: "The machine seemed to live a life of its own, to h...