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Subappennino Low and uniform, the plains are like a sea of grass and wheat, and the heights on the horizon are like islands of an archipelago.
The most magnetic and famous of all is surely the Gargano, the sacred mountain. But nearer by, more secret and secluded, there are the Subappennine heights, a fascinating world to be discovered only a few kilometers from Canestrello. On first glance, this may seem to be an uninviting landscape. Nevertheless, these places conserve authentic natural reserves, as well as noble testaments of the past. One
has only to wander these secondary roads, even without a true destination,
to be captured by this real connoisseur scenery.
We recommend that you take the back roads. You may come across a cow or two, and, along the road, more falcons than automobiles, more windmills than people, evidence that this is healthy, uncontaminated place. These landscapes will improve your whole outlook, a trip to Canestrello will be visual and mental therapy.
In addition to nature; there is the country: the town of Serracapriola and its castle, the watchtowers of Castelluccio Valmaggiore and Biccari; the old city of Bovino, whose center is rich with Byzantine and Gothic remains; the square castle of Deliceto; the ancient Ascoli Satriano; Faeto, an old Frankish community and its forests; Osara di Puglia, with its old, suggestive traditions; Roseto Valfortore, an extremely delightful and hospitable village rich with natural springs and well preserved, with the roses that give it its name planted along the main street. The Subappennine region has always enjoyed a strategic importance. Its hilltops crowned with castles, it represented in the Middle Ages, the Byzantine empire’s forward line of defense against the Lombards. And along the valleys between the hills, wind the tracks of the herds used by the shepherds who, in the winter, come down from the cold mountains of the Abruzzi to the milder and more level region of Apulia. For centuries the centers remained isolated.
These days, we can offer them to travelers as the real pearls of a
tourism that is “off the beaten track.” Don’t expect great architectural astonishments;
speak to the people, go to the small local shops, rest on the benches
of the little public gardens with their belveders and war monuments.
Look at the whole spectacle and have in return a sense of having discovered
a unknown and secluded world.
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