Pescasseroli

Pescasseroli is a mountain town in the upper Sangro valley of Abruzzo, sitting on a plateau at roughly 1,160 m at the foot of Monte delle Vitelle. It is the principal centre of the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park (Parco Nazionale d'Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise) — Italy's oldest national park, founded in 1922 on the initiative of engineer and deputy Erminio Sipari and formally recognized by the state in 1923. The park protects some of the most unspoiled beech-forest and high-pasture landscape in the Apennines and is known for having helped save the Marsican brown bear and the Apennine wolf from extinction.

The town's economy grew historically around pastoralism and woodworking. Its position made it a starting point on the Pescasseroli–Candela tratturo, one of the great transhumance sheep-tracks that carried flocks between the Abruzzo mountains and the Tavoliere delle Puglie each year — a route with roots as a Roman military road later formalized as a pastoral corridor in the Middle Ages. The historic centre is anchored by Castel Mancino, a fortified nucleus with a keep, perimeter walls, and minor towers built around the 9th–10th centuries to defend the settlement.

Pescasseroli is reached by road from the Sangro valley and the Fucino basin, via routes connecting to the wider Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise National Park road network.

The Park Visitor Centre, opened in 1969, is the town's main cultural facility for the national park — it includes a Nature Museum presenting the park's fauna, geology, and traditions through dioramas, models, and thematic exhibits, plus an auditorium. Castel Mancino, the town's medieval fortified core, is another point of historic interest.

The surrounding Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise National Park is the reason most visitors come to Pescasseroli, offering hiking and wildlife-watching in beech forests and high pasture that are habitat for the Marsican brown bear, Apennine wolf, and Abruzzo chamois.

Pescasseroli sits within the wider Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise National Park, which spans other gateway towns in the Sangro valley and the adjoining areas of Lazio and Molise.