Step by step on the Cammino di Celestino in Abruzzo

The first stage starts from Sulmona arrives at Pacentro and is 13 kilometres long.

Sulmona, the "city of confetti (sugar-coated almonds)", has a lot to offer and is the ideal place to complete your preparations before departure. To visit it, walk along Corso Ovidio, starting from the Cathedral of San Panfilo, continuing towards Piazza XX Settembre, to the ancient and vast Piazza Maggiore, where markets and traditional festivals such as the "Giostra cavalleresca" ("Joust of Chivalry") take place.

The first steps on the true Cammino, however, are taken from the Abbey of the Holy Spirit at Monte Morrone, also known as Badia Morronese, of the Celestine order and among the largest in Italy.

There you will receive the "Charta Peregrini", a kind of credential on which the stages reached by walkers on their journey are marked. The route of the first stage is easy, with an elevation of 300 metres and the arrival, between cultivated fields and dry stone walls, in the medieval village of Pacentro.

The second stage of about 20 kilometres is the one that marks the passage from the Valle Peligna to the Orta Valley, climbing the San Leonardo pass, and it takes about 7 hours to walk, with an elevation of 660 metres uphill and 700 metres downhill.

From the start, you can climb constantly, but the magnificent views of the Majella and its "raves", steep channels that lead to the summit of Mount Amaro, repay all your efforts. From there, you descend, observed by Mount Amaro and with the Gran Sasso silhouetted on the horizon, and step by step you reach Caramanico, an ideal place to stop, recuperate, eat and enjoy not only rest, but also the discovery of an evocative historic centre, between the church of San Nicola and the San Maurizio district.

It is from Caramanico Terme that the third stage starts, which requires more or less eight hours of walking. It is a challenging 18 kilometres, with an uphill gradient of 780 metres and a downhill gradient of 580 metres, but even on this stage of the route you are surrounded by amazing nature, which runs through the valley of the Orfento River.

You ascend it by walking between the steep, vertical and green walls of the canyon carved by the river, until you descend into the river gorge.

After several wooden bridges, cross the Ponte di San Cataldo and the Ponte di San Benedetto. Here, trail B2 is interrupted by a municipal ordinance, so you must continue on the same side of the valley on trail S, which enters the beech forest.

An hour's ascent takes you to the ruins of the hermitage of S. Onofrio all'Orfento, which is completely carved into the rock, and then down to the valley along the same trail as on the way up to the San Benedetto bridge and the turnoff to Decontra. 

The fourth stage is even more demanding, especially due to the height differences and some exposed trail sections near the hermitage of San Giovanni. The length is 15 kilometres, with an elevation of 1050 metres uphill and 450 metres downhill. What awaits you, however, is one of the most evocative stages of the Cammino Classico di Celestino.

You start at Decontra, then take trail P until you turn off onto trail B1, which leads to the Piangrande meadows. You are supposed to turn right onto trail S, but a temporary prohibition of this section forces you to continue straight on B1 and then descend on the second trail S to reach the scenic, and challenging, entrance to the hermitage of S. Giovanni all'Orfento, one of the most evocative places on the entire Cammino, clinging to the rock at 1227 metres above sea level.

To access, agility and experience are required. In fact, you have to descend a ladder carved into the rock and then tread carefully along a ledge: the section is exposed, and for a few metres, you have to literally advance "belly down".

After the visit along the same trail, return to the Pianagrande dirt road, where you continue to the right along trail B1 in the direction of the Blockhaus. The fatigue is rewarded by exciting moments, such as the views from above over the Orfento valley, the dry stone huts, the blooms of the Pian Grande meadows and finally, from Mount Tettone, the view as far as the sea. 

You will be walking 15 kilometres with 350 metres of ascent and a great deal of descent, with some 600 metres of altitude difference, walking through beech forests and woods.

Near Fonte Tettone, take trail P, which rises and then descends into a beech forest. The advice is to stop to enjoy the magnificent view of the Gran Sasso group, before continuing towards the Hermitage of San Bartolomeo in Legio, on the side of the Santo Spirito Valley, under a large rock roof, up to the Hermitage of Santo Spirito a Maiella, which is reached in an hour and a half's walk. From the hermitage, go back on trail S, to the towns of Macchiametola, Collarso and Macchie di Coco, where you can eat and finally rest before the last stop.

The last stage that ends in Serramonacesca, in the Abbey of San Liberatore, is easy. You will need to walk 14 kilometres, but there are only 260 metres of altitude difference uphill and 600 metres downhill.

The first part of the itinerary is on asphalt as far as the Acquafredda hill, then continues downhill inside the Fosso Sant'Angelo di Lettomanoppello, crossing it to reach the Grotta Sant'Angelo, a rocky place of worship: about 22 metres wide, it is divided in the centre by a rocky spur that creates two vaguely semicircular spaces; inside, there is a small altar with a statue of the Archangel Michael (at present, only a reproduction can be seen because the original is housed in the Museo delle Genti d'Abruzzo in Pescara). Now it's back to the ascent, up to the provincial road linking Lettomanoppello and Passo Lanciano.

After Fonte Pirella, at a bend to the right, you enter a dirt road on the left, which then becomes a trail. With the sea in sight, between low walls and ancient stone stazzi, and continuing straight on, we arrive at the Hermitage of Sant'Onofrio and then at the Abbey of San Liberatore in Serramonacesca, the conclusion of Celestino's "classic" route.