In Abruzzo, along with some State and Regional Reserves there are also some WWF-Italy oasis. Three of them (Lago di Penne, Majella Orientale and Serranella) coincide with the territory protected by the Region. The other three oasis are located on very interesting areas from a naturalistical point of view; they are directly run on the basis of rental agreements with public and private owners.

The National Park of Abruzzo.
The National Park of Gran Sasso-Laga.
The National Park of Majella-Morrone.
The Regional Park of Sirente-Velino.

Almost all the mountain centres of Abruzzo, sitting tight and protected on the peaks, were wise in their geographical setting and their own morphology for two reasons: the extreme danger of the Middle Ages, a period in which the majority of these villages arose, and the business (but it could be said mono-culture) of sheep farming, that has its kingdom in the mountains.
Built entirely out of live stone and mud, with a total, phobic absence of wood, all the old villages of the Abruzzo mountains express the obsessive attachment to stone, which is typical of the Mediterranean civilization. These houses of bare stone, built dose, one to another, to form a compact, protective mass in guise of a wall (therefore called "case-mura", wall-houses), are communicating their never-ending, anguishing need of defence in a world of extended, feudal anarchy, of the critical evasion of the central powers and therefore, the lack of organized systems of defence. The outside perimeter of the houses enclosed the village in a civilian (none the less effective), defensive circle.
On the outside there are few windows, almost as narrow as slits, placed in the upper floors. A direct consequence of the dangerous times, the so called "defence barriers" represented the only solid system of self-defence for the local population. Real, fortified villages more than just castles, these allowed a prolonged, defensive retreat for the people, if necessary.
For a very long space of time, going from the XI century to the French revolution, this type of urban plan formed a typical model of a civilized settlement in the Abruzzo mountains. Nevertheless it is difficult to understand the sense of these human settlements, often pushed to the limits of habitability without putting them back in their place in that system of economic production that organizes, in its entirety, all life in the mountains: sheep farming.
In actual fact, as an economic activity predominant in Abruzzo for almost three millenniums, therefore the origin of a particular condition of life, the sheep farming has made an impression on the territory not just limited to prints left in the pastures and sheep tracks. The great majority of the sheep, the huge flocks that periodically moved from the upper pastures in the mountains to the coastal plains of the Peninsula, are completely unconnected with the inhabited centre: the transhumant sheep always live out in the open. They represented, however, a sort of additional capital that never became directly part of the life or urban plan of the mountain villages. The actual style of each single house reflects this economy tied to a type of breeding which is based on large herds of small animals. The impossibility of moving this patrimony to the centre of the village, the need of defence which tended to limit the extension of the centre to be protected, and the steepness of the slopes, made a particular housing structure necessary in the shape of buildings with three, four, or even five or six rooms, one on top of the other.

The Castelli majolica.

First courses.
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Cheeses.
Fish specialities.
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