Discovering the Mediterranean. Itineraries of travellers between eighteenth and twentieth centuries in Abruzzo region

The paper wants to explore internal territories of the Abruzzo region (Italy) in the footsteps of ancient paths, traced by writers and artists of the past centuries in their training journeys. In the Late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, Abruzzo region was protagonist of the trade exchanges between the two great cities of Florence and Naples, which took place on the famous “Via degli Abruzzi”, an internal itinerary which in terms of length and morphology was preferred to the route along the Tyrrhenian coast. Thanks to this road, which passed through the cities of Perugia, L’Aquila, Sulmona, Capua and Aversa, humanistic culture and Renaissance art came and flourished in this region. Between the eighteenth century and the second half of the nineteenth century, the first notes of travelers, such as those of Richard Keppel Craven and Edward Lear, allow us today to reconstruct the most recurring itineraries and destinations. From their stories we can perceive the changed European cultural climate, aimed at enhancing the artistic heritage subsequent to ancient times, starting in particular from the medieval world, of which Abruzzo had been a great protagonist (from the twelfth century to the late fifteenth century).