Celano Avezzano and Alba Fucens

CELANO AVEZZANO AND ALBA FUCENS

Fringing the plain is CELANO , a pretty village crowned by a turreted toytown castle and home to a new Museo della Preistoria d'Abruzzo, based on finds from a nearby lake village dating back to 3000 years BC (Mon-Sat 9am-7.30pm, Sun 2-7.30pm; free). Hotel Le Gole on Via Sardellino (tel 0863.711.009, www.hotellegole.it ; L150,000-200,000/¬77.47-103.29) makes an excellent base for the area, including Alba Fucens . Built in 1998 in faux-Francescan style around a central cloister it's a comfortable, professionally run, well-organized place to stay, with great food at reasonable prices in its Da Guerrinuccio restaurant.

A little further west is AVEZZANO , an unfortunate city that was destroyed - along with 10,000 inhabitants - by an earthquake in 1915. It was rebuilt, but flattened again by World War II bombings. It's since been reconstructed, but the only reason for a visit is to get a bus out to the remains of a substantial Roman colony at Alba Fucens, or south to the Parco Nazionale d'Abruzzo . Buses to Alba Fucens leave from outside the train station; there are around nine daily going there, about five coming back.

Alba Fucens was a garrison town of about 30,000 inhabitants, founded by the Romans in 304 BC to keep the surrounding tribes in check. Aerial photographs have identified remains spreading over three square kilometres, but only the area nearest to Albe has been excavated. The main street of the town, Via Valeria, originally ran to Rome, 68 Roman miles away, according to a milestone on the town's edge. Walking down the parallel street, you reach the marketplace, still with the walls and arches of the small shops that used to surround it. Beyond is a bar, consisting of a sink with pipes that once dispensed hot wine with honey and pine-resin; behind are the steam baths - you can see the holes in the raised pavement through which the steam rose. A good many statues, most notably a gargantuan marble Hercules, were also found, but these are now kept at Chieti's archeology museum . Further on, above the amphitheatre, the beautiful Romanesque church of San Pietro has some excellent Cosmatesque inlaid and twisted marble decoration.