Visiting Abruzzo: Photos of a Journey by Train from Rome, the Valle Peligna and Torre dei Nolfi
12.9.12
Visiting Abruzzo: A Journey by Train from Rome, the Valle Peligna and Torre dei Nolfi, a set on Flickr.
Last month — although it now seems like an eternity ago, and a distant dream — I visited Italy for a two-week holiday, spending the first week in Rome and the second in Abruzzo, a mountainous region to the east. I posted photos from Rome in five sets, available here as a collection on Flickr, or here, and I still have two sets to post, but until now I hadn’t posted any photos from the second week, in Abruzzo, where we were based in a small village called Torre dei Nolfi, near the city of Sulmona, famous as the birthplace of the Roman poet Ovid.
Our journey to Abruzzo — to the city of Sulmona — involved a two and a half hour journey by train from Tiburtina station in Rome, on a wonderful trip through the mountains in which, for added atmosphere, the lights in our carriage didn’t work, so that we were plunged into darkness every time the train passed through a tunnel. To be fair, the lights did work in the rest of the carriages, although I really did enjoy the darkness, and I wasn’t looking to complain, given that our three return tickets cost just 25 Euros, the price of three One Day Travelcards in London.
This first set of photos from Abruzzo — out of five in total — begins in Tiburtina station in Rome, and records some of the views from our train journey, plus photos from Torre dei Nolfi, the village near Sulmona where we were staying, taken at various times during the week of our stay. The entire region was thoroughly enchanting, as I hope to demonstrate in further photos — from Sulmona, and from other trips into the mountains, and, on one long excursion, to a beach on the Adriatic coast.
As the leaves start to turn here in London, and the news from Guantánamo is relentlessly depressing, it’s pleasant to revisit the heat of summer, and the relaxation of a family holiday, and I hope you enjoy this glimpse into another world, where, despite Italy’s economic woes, family and food remain central to everyone’s lives and suggest that, whatever else happens, the love of seasonal food, and strong family ties will remain the bedrock of society.
Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed — and I can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Flickr (my photos) and YouTube. Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in April 2012, “The Complete Guantánamo Files,” a 70-part, million-word series drawing on files released by WikiLeaks in April 2011, and details about the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, and available on DVD here — or here for the US). Also see my definitive Guantánamo habeas list and the chronological list of all my articles, and please also consider joining the new “Close Guantánamo campaign,” and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.
Who's still at Guantánamo?
20 Responses
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks for your interest, my friends. I’ll be posting more London photos tomorrow, and more photos from Italy soon, when I can find the time. I need to go to bed now. A South African Muslim radio station is interviewing me at 7.30 in the morning about Adnan Latif, the 9th prisoner to die at Guantanamo. I also just finished writing another article about him, my weekly column for FFF, which will be published on Friday, and on my site on Saturday.
...on September 13th, 2012 at 1:18 am
Andy Worthington says...
I also posted the photo, “The adorable kitten,” on Facebook, and wrote:
OK, so I have never posted a photo of an adorable kitten before, but I went all the way to a remote corner of Italy, and found this one staring at me, so how could I not share it with you?
...on September 13th, 2012 at 1:27 am
Andy Worthington says...
Mary Shepard wrote:
I’m sharing it. I’m a cat lady.
...on September 13th, 2012 at 1:28 am
Andy Worthington says...
AniTa Hdz wrote:
Awwww~
...on September 13th, 2012 at 1:29 am
Andy Worthington says...
Naomi Moo Fountain wrote:
looks like my cat (hi)Jax who sadly died last year =o((
...on September 13th, 2012 at 1:29 am
Andy Worthington says...
Anne Johnson wrote:
this kitten is very smart to find you so fascinating!
...on September 13th, 2012 at 1:30 am
Andy Worthington says...
Esther Angel wrote:
Cats always know who they can trust!
...on September 13th, 2012 at 1:30 am
Andy Worthington says...
Thank you, my friends. Good to hear from you all.
...on September 13th, 2012 at 1:32 am
Andy Worthington says...
Mark Erickson wrote:
If that cute kitten can’t close Gitmo nothing can. PS iPhone auto speller corrected gtmo to Gitmo. Oh, the humanity!
...on September 13th, 2012 at 4:17 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Jennah Solace wrote:
CUTE! I love ‘Roman silhouette’ – wow! And the landscapes too – gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeousness!
...on September 13th, 2012 at 4:17 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Ruth Gilburt wrote:
first time for everything, Andy…hahaha x
...on September 13th, 2012 at 4:17 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Zilma Nunes wrote:
I love cats..
...on September 13th, 2012 at 4:18 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Mark, Jennah, Ruth and Zilma. So Mark, “Cute Kittens Against Guantanamo” is the new campaign, yes?
...on September 13th, 2012 at 4:18 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Sue Glenton wrote:
Love your Italy photos, I was almost there.
...on September 13th, 2012 at 6:54 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Sue. That’s good to hear!
...on September 13th, 2012 at 6:55 pm
Clive says...
Lovely photos Andy, so glad you enjoyed your stay here.
...on September 13th, 2012 at 7:29 pm
Andy Worthington says...
It was lovely, Clive, although it seems like a dream now, of course. Enjoy your autumn!
...on September 13th, 2012 at 7:54 pm
Milly says...
All of your pictures are beautiful, Andrew. It does seem like a dream…
Regards to Dorothy and Tyler.
...on September 14th, 2012 at 5:37 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Hi Milena,
Great to hear from you. It was so lovely to meet you in Abruzzo.
Now that reality has struck, I hope the school kids are behaving – though I guess they’re probably not!
...on September 14th, 2012 at 5:58 pm
Abruzzo says...
Yea! Abruzzo forever! 🙂
...on January 29th, 2014 at 3:21 pm