Abruzzo Is Italy's Next Big Thing

5 min read

That's my little piece of heaven, and I've always done that since I was little.

Silvia Colloca

Silvia Colloca has been going back every year since she was a kid. Everyone else is just discovering it. For Silvia, it's home.

Italy's travel press has started saying out loud what Abruzzo's locals have known for a long time. The mountain region east of Rome is being called the country's new luxury destination for 2026. A new Italian study has found that travelling for food and wine is the clearest way to avoid the crowds in Florence and Venice. L'Aquila, Abruzzo's capital, is Italy's Capital of Culture this year. People are paying attention.

Silvia Colloca has been paying attention her whole life. Abruzzo is where her mother's family comes from, and she has gone back every year since she was a child.

Why Abruzzo, and why now

For years, a trip to Italy meant the same few places: Rome, Florence, Venice, maybe the Amalfi Coast. Those cities are still beautiful, but the queues, the crowds and the new limits on visitor numbers have pushed curious travellers to look elsewhere. Abruzzo is where many of them are ending up.

On a map it doesn't seem far away. It's around two hours' drive from Rome. Once you're there, it feels like a different country. About a third of the region is national park. Medieval hamlets sit on top of hills under the Gran Sasso, the highest peaks in the Apennines. Then the land drops down to the Adriatic, where old wooden fishing platforms called trabocchi stand out over the water. The region also produces some of Italy's best-value wine, saffron grown in the mountains, and the sugared almonds of Sulmona.

Coaches heading to the usual places don't stop here, and that's exactly why it works.

"Once you travel away from the touristy spots of the main cities, you are going to encounter a more authentic Italy that is not necessarily designed for mass tourism. It's still friendly, it's still functional. It's just a more unique experience."

The Italy you see through a local's eyes

Plenty of people visit Abruzzo. Very few of them can show you around as if it were their own family's region, because for Silvia it is. She was born and raised in Italy and moved to Australia as an adult. That makes her view of the country different from the one many Australians grew up with.

"I'm not a first generation Australian, I'm not a second generation. They get to see it through the lens of someone who grew up there."

A decade ago, before the cookbooks became a series, Silvia spent a season filming in the small villages of central Italy for SBS. That show, Made in Italy, is still the work her audience mentions most. The people she met while filming are still her friends. One of them, Rosanna, a relative of Silvia's who appeared on the show, will lead a cooking class alongside her on this Journey.

Slow down and stay longer

Silvia's view on how to see Abruzzo is simple. Don't rush it. When we first talked about this Journey, she pushed back on the usual habit of moving to a new hotel every night.

"If we move every day to a different accommodation, that's when it becomes less intimate. You don't have the time to even connect to the hosts that are hosting us, and the really valuable people that are worth getting to know, because they're very, very generous."

So The Village Table keeps the bases few. Travellers start in Rome, then move up into the mountains to Santo Stefano di Sessanio. It's a stone hamlet that has been restored as a scattered village hotel (an albergo diffuso), with rooms spread across the old houses. From there the Journey heads to the coast at Francavilla al Mare. Silvia joins for the heart of the trip, with aperitivo and Italian conversation in the hills, a cooking class with Rosanna, a dinner at La Guardata farm, and a long lunch that ends with her singing opera.

In between there's truffle hunting, a Montepulciano d'Abruzzo tasting at Podere Castorani, and a lunch in the mountains at Ristoro Mucciante. There's also the ride Silvia talks about most, along the cycle track that runs beside the sea on the Costa dei Trabocchi.

"There's a track down in Abruzzo that's just a bike track that runs parallel to the sea, and it's just stunning."

Where is Abruzzo in Italy?

Abruzzo is in central Italy, east of Rome, between the Apennine mountains and the Adriatic Sea. It's about two hours' drive from Rome, which makes it easy to add on to time in the capital.

Why is Abruzzo considered an underrated region of Italy?

It has many of the things travellers love about Tuscany, like hill towns, good wine and great food, with a fraction of the crowds. It also has mountains, national parks and a coastline. Most large tour groups never come here, so it still feels lived-in rather than built for visitors.

When is the best time to visit Abruzzo?

Late spring and early summer are lovely. The mountains are green, the coast is warm enough for a ride along the sea, and the village food festivals are starting. The Village Table runs 16 to 25 June 2027.

The Village Table: Silvia Colloca's Italy

See Abruzzo with the person who has known it all her life.

Ten days from Rome to the mountains of Santo Stefano di Sessanio and down to the Adriatic coast, 16 to 25 June 2027, for up to 20 travellers.

View the Journey