scanno
 
Twenty kilometres down the road from Cocullo, but most easily accessible by bus from Sulmona, Scanno is another popular tourist destination, reached by passing through the narrow and rocky Saggitario Gorge, a spectacular drive along galleries of rock and around blind hairpin bends which widen out at the glassy green Lago di Scanno . Perched over the lake is a church, Madonna del Lago , encrusted with ex-votos and with the cliff as its back wall, and nearby there are boats and pedalos for rent, and a good restaurant, the Trattoria sul Lago. If you're planning on staying there's a campsite I Lupi (tel 0864.740.100), 4km away at Villalago, but be warned that it is normally packed out in summer, especially during August.

A couple of kilometres beyond, SCANNO itself is a well-preserved medieval village encircled by mountains. Many of the women of the village still wear the traditional costume of long dark pleated skirts and bodices, with either a patterned apron for day-to-day wear or a brocade skirt and embroidered fez with coils of cord looped behind to conceal the hair on special occasions (with a white skirt for weddings). The skirts are made of wool - the village's staple industry in former times - and weigh around 12 kilos, but their heaviness doesn't prevent them from being worn for household tasks. As you wander round the village it soon becomes clear that far from being dismissed as an anachronism, older women dressed in this way are accorded great respect. The hat and the fact that at Scannese weddings the tradition was for women to squat on the floor of the church, has led scholars to believe that the Scannese originated in Asia Minor; Scannese jewellery also has something of the Orient about it - large, delicately filigreed earrings, and a star, known as a presuntuosa , given to fiancées to ward off other men. If you want to watch a goldsmith at work, go to the jewellers round the corner from the tourist office on the main square.

It's a pleasure strolling around the old town built into the steep hillside, the squares and alleyways lined with solid stone houses built by wool barons when business was good. However, Scanno is not some sort of museum piece. Though the population has dwindled it's a living village, with enough work available in Sulmona to keep people from moving away. Now that shepherding as a way of life is virtually finished, sheep have been replaced by tourists. A chair lift takes skiers up to a handful of runs on Monte Rotondo, operating also in the short summer season (July and August) when it's worth going up just for the view of lake and mountains, especially at sunset. In winter a skibus runs between Rome and Scanno once a day (journey time 1hr 50min; L60,000/30.99 including ski-pass; tel 0864.747.774).