Where you are
Villa Grotta delle Farfalle sits above Rocca San Giovanni on the Costa dei Trabocchi, with olive groves and vineyards on every side, the Adriatic one way and the Majella the other. Foce beach and the Via Verde are a two-minute drive or a twenty-minute walk; Cavalluccio beach is five. Pescara airport is forty-five minutes.
Most of Activities is within an hour of the house; the far end is a proper day out. Straight-line distance, not road — allow more inland, where the roads turn.
How this works
Activities is the whole list — filter it, and tap a heart to shortlist what appeals. Calendar is the shared plan: put a rough idea into any slot from Breakfast to Evening, confirm the place once the hearts are in, and mark it booked. Things to know is what will otherwise catch you out.
The heart is yours — and shareable
Hearts are saved under your name and everyone sees everyone’s — initials appear on the cards, and the Group ♥ chip gathers everything anyone has hearted, most agreed first. There are no accounts, just your name — your personal link sets it, and you can change it under Activities.
The house
Five bedrooms, eight beds, three and a half bathrooms. Private infinity pool with a diving board, a wood-fired pizza oven and a BBQ under the covered patio. The upstairs room has no air conditioning, and there is no gate on the pool.
Chiara
Your host lives nearby in Vasto, replies within the hour, and sends recommendations for beaches and restaurants before you arrive. Check-in is 4pm–10pm, checkout before 10am.
September is doing you a favour
The sea is still warm, the crowds have gone, and the vendemmia is on so the cantine are working. The catch is that summer-season things stop the moment the month turns.
Tap a name for the full story
Every place opens into its own card — what it is, why it made the list, who’s hearted it — with an “open in maps” link for directions and photos.
One plan, the same on everyone’s phone. Drop a rough idea into any slot — “Eat out”, “Beach”, “Day trip” — then tap Confirm a place once the hearts are in. Booked? marks a table or a boat as called. Arrivals and birthdays are already in.
Sunday and Monday are the awkward ones — the day cards say so, and Things to know has the detail. Anyone can add or remove — it is a shared sheet, so be kind to it.
Pins follow the filters below and open in Maps. Black pin is the house; a ringed pin has hearts; a hollow one is the town, not the door.
Eating and drinking, then everything you do. Filter by what it is and how far you would drive; the heart is your vote, and a name opens the full story — and who’s hearted it.
Just-added and hearted places sit at the top.
From the group 0
At the house 4
Eat & drink 163
Wineries & distilleries 65
Out and about 156
Nothing matches that. Try clearing a filter.
The things that are true of the whole region rather than any one place.
Landing, leaving, and the ride home
Who lands when, and who is collecting
Fri 11 — Matt, Sam and Vero land 16:30 and pick up the hire cars at the terminal; at the house by about 17:30. Mon 14 — Lyndsey, Frances and Anthony land 20:40 on the only direct flight that day; Matt is at arrivals with a car, and supper is late. Thu 17 — Lauren lands 09:50 and is collected; poolside by eleven. Nobody needs a taxi from the airport at any point.
Running late? Say so in the group, not just to Matt
If the flight slips or you are stuck at passport control, message the Abruzzo 2026 WhatsApp group — whoever is driving may be in the car with the phone face-down. Italy now uses the EU Entry/Exit System at the border: fingerprints and a photo the first time, so allow an extra twenty or thirty minutes on the way in, and again on the way out.
Sunday 20: the way home, together
Everyone is on the 19:25 to Stansted, landing about 21:00. Leave the house by 16:45 — the cars go back to the terminal and want fuel first. At Stansted an 8-seater minibus is booked for 21:45 (Snap Cars, ref SC260914-0903, 01279 927092) — it drops at E2 then Fore St by Moorgate, so no train dash and no splitting up. Meet on the pickup forecourt, not in arrivals: the driver waits 15 minutes free, so message from baggage reclaim if the bags are slow.
Boarding passes are digital only
Ryanair no longer accepts printed boarding passes: check in through the app and have the pass on your phone before you leave the house on the Sunday — the villa Wi-Fi is your last certain connection. Hand luggage counts: one free underseat bag; a cabin bag is €36 a flight unless you have already paid for it.
Getting there and getting about
Pescara airport, 45 minutes
Abruzzo Airport (PSR) is the near one, about forty-five minutes up the coast. Rome Fiumicino is the usual alternative at roughly three hours by road. Hire cars are at the terminal; two cars between the seven of you is the plan.
The train is genuinely useful
Fossacesia–Torino di Sangro station is 3.4 km from the house, on the Adriatic line. Around sixteen trains a day to Pescara Centrale in 34–41 minutes (first about 06:35, last back about 21:18) and a dozen to Termoli in about 38 minutes. That makes a car-free evening in Pescara easy, and it is a real option for the Tremiti day.
Bikes travel free
On regional trains showing the bike symbol, bikes go free — so you can ride the Via Verde out and train back. Not worth it for Lanciano; driving beats it.
Nothing is walkable
The sea is a twenty-minute walk down and a stiffer one back up. The coastal contrade have no supermarket, no pharmacy and no bank — a campsite, a seasonal beach bar, the trabocchi and a gelateria at Vallevò. Everything else is a drive.
Where to shop
Deco, Via della Marina 55, Fossacesia Marina, about 4 km — Mon–Sat 8–20, Sun 8:30–13:30. For a big stock-up, Eurospin at C.da Santa Calcagna, Mon–Sat 8–21, Sun 8–20:30, no lunch closure, with a tabaccheria and parafarmacia on the same site. Conad City in Fossacesia shuts 13–16:30.
Pharmacy and bread
Farmacia De Mia, Corso Garibaldi 24 in the borgo, roughly 8:30–13 and 16:30–20; the Sunday rota is at farmaciediturno.org. Forno Zulli on Via Mazzini has been going since 1896, and the same family runs the pizzeria.
Cash and fuel — do not rely on the village
No petrol station could be confirmed inside the comune at all, and the one listed bank branch could not be verified. Draw cash and fill up in Fossacesia or Lanciano before you need either. Markets, small forni and remote agriturismi are cash-first.
Parking
Free in the borgo and no documented ZTL, but the lanes are narrow. Park at the edge and walk in.
The standing rules
Opening hours are a rumour
Published hours, including on a place’s own website, are aspirations. Phone the same morning for anything you would be sad to miss. This is not pessimism — it is how the region works.
Everything shuts 13:00–16:30
Shops and many smaller sights close for the middle of the day. Plan the drive, the beach or a long lunch into that window rather than fighting it.
Monday 14 September
Your only Monday, and most museums close. It is the right day for a market town, a beach, a cantina or the Via Verde — and the wrong one for anything with a ticket desk.
Phone, and phone in Italian
Trabocchi, agriturismi and cantine are phone-or-WhatsApp bookings, and a message in Italian gets answered faster than an email in English. There are seven of you, which several places will need warning about.
While you are there
San Matteo — the festa starts as you leave
The patron saint’s festa runs 19–23 September: an opening concert on the first night in Piazza degli Eroi, a visiting band and fireworks on the 21st, and a second fireworks night on the 23rd. With the 19th your last Saturday, the opening night is yours; watch the Comitato feste San Matteo Apostolo page for the 2026 line-up.
Chieti’s Notte Gialla — your last Saturday
Saturday 19 September, Chieti Scalo, forty minutes inland: the lower town pedestrianised and dressed in yellow, shops open late, nine or so stages and street corners with bands and DJs into the small hours. Big, free, cheerfully un-cool. The 2026 line-up lands the week before on the Eventi Scalini pages.
Vendemmia is on
Harvest runs through your stay, which is why the cantine are worth visiting — and why they may be too busy to receive you without a call first.
The sea is at its warmest
About 25°C, the warmest it gets all year. Lidos and lifeguards wind down through September — the lifeguarded season ends on the 13th — but the water stays warm long after the deckchairs go.
The sagre are announced late
Abruzzo’s smaller festivals are announced only two to four weeks ahead by the local Pro Loco, so the calendar looks emptier now than it will be. Re-check abruzzoinfesta.it and ChietiToday’s weekend guides in late August.
Don’t go hunting for these
Checked, and not worth your time on these dates.
Terme di Caramanico is closed
The company is in bankruptcy and the water concession has been going to auction. Terme Inn Popoli is the only real thermal soak still trading.
Both water parks shut before you land
Aqualand del Vasto closes 6 September and Onda Blu 30 August. Nothing in Abruzzo or Molise stays open into your window. The sea, the villa pool and Terme Inn Popoli are the answers.
No olive harvest, and truffles stop on the 15th
Abruzzo picks olives from October, so every “raccolta” experience is out of season. Scorzone truffles run to 15 September and then nothing is legally harvestable until October — after that date, anyone selling you a hunt is selling you something odd.
Punta Aderci’s Via Verde section: half mended
The Mottagrossa sinkhole from the 2025–26 landslides was filled in July 2026 and that stretch reopens once the paperwork clears; a second closure a hundred metres north, under the Province, was still in place at the last report. Expect a signed detour. The headland walk itself is fine.
You cannot island-hop from Tremiti
Every service is mainland-out-morning, mainland-back-afternoon, so there is no onward boat. Pianosa is a no-landing zone. And there is no Tremiti boat from Abruzzo at all — Termoli or nothing.
No opera, and no cinema in English
The open-air festivals ended in late August and the Marrucino’s season opens later in autumn — a guided tour of the theatre is the consolation. The multiplexes dub everything.