In the first couple of draft
plans for this trip we intended to stay in the mountain village of Pescocostanzo.
We changed our minds after we received an email from the hotel, which reminded
us to carry snow chains. After a bit more research we realized that the town’s
elevation was 1440 metres, so we abandoned the historic mountain town and
decided to stay somewhere further down the slopes. Last week, when we were in
Croatia, we saw a BBC World Service weather update reporting that Italy had
received a huge amount of snow and a group of towns, including Pescocostanzo,
had broken the existing record for the greatest amount of snow to fall in the
shortest period of time. 100 inches (2.5 m) of snow had fallen in eighteen
hours. We were relieved that we had decided to abandon the mountain village.
From the slopes of Abruzzo
we bravely decided to go for a drive towards the mountains, in fact towards Pescocostanzo,
to see how far we could get. With the sun out and the temperature a balmy 16
degrees we thought that we might get half way. To our enormous surprise we traveled
on dry roads, periodically lined by snow, to a sunny and rather beautiful
Pensocostanzo arriving at about 1.00pm.
Our only disappointment was that
the town was almost deserted. Tourists had obviously read the weather reports
and stayed away. Being 1pm the locals had all fled to their homes for their
daily siesta. Every shop was closed and the only people we met were an academic
couple from Oxford who were in town to do a bit of snowshoe walking. Although
the roads were clear, the parks were piled with snow. We ate our prepacked
lunch at the only dry seat we could find, across the road from a park covered
in at least 60 cms of snow.
Driving back to Limiti we
drove around the edge of the Majella National Park, on a rather precarious road.
The road clung to the side of the mountain with a steep drop descending into the
valley below. It was the type of road that made the Galston Gorge (north-west
of Sydney) look like a four lane highway. Exhilarating, picturesque and
slightly crazy. Not a bad description of Italy really!
In the first couple of draft
plans for this trip we intended to stay in the mountain village of Pescocostanzo.
We changed our minds after we received an email from the hotel, which reminded
us to carry snow chains. After a bit more research we realized that the town’s
elevation was 1440 metres, so we abandoned the historic mountain town and
decided to stay somewhere further down the slopes. Last week, when we were in
Croatia, we saw a BBC World Service weather update reporting that Italy had
received a huge amount of snow and a group of towns, including Pescocostanzo,
had broken the existing record for the greatest amount of snow to fall in the
shortest period of time. 100 inches (2.5 m) of snow had fallen in eighteen
hours. We were relieved that we had decided to abandon the mountain village. 
From the slopes of Abruzzo
we bravely decided to go for a drive towards the mountains, in fact towards Pescocostanzo,
to see how far we could get. With the sun out and the temperature a balmy 16
degrees we thought that we might get half way. To our enormous surprise we traveled
on dry roads, periodically lined by snow, to a sunny and rather beautiful
Pensocostanzo arriving at about 1.00pm. 
Our only disappointment was that
the town was almost deserted. Tourists had obviously read the weather reports
and stayed away. Being 1pm the locals had all fled to their homes for their
daily siesta. Every shop was closed and the only people we met were an academic
couple from Oxford who were in town to do a bit of snowshoe walking. Although
the roads were clear, the parks were piled with snow. We ate our prepacked
lunch at the only dry seat we could find, across the road from a park covered
in at least 60 cms of snow.
Driving back to Limiti we
drove around the edge of the Majella National Park, on a rather precarious road.
The road clung to the side of the mountain with a steep drop descending into the
valley below. It was the type of road that made the Galston Gorge (north-west
of Sydney) look like a four lane highway. Exhilarating, picturesque and
slightly crazy. Not a bad description of Italy really! 
That is a BIG snowstorm!!
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