Trabocchi Coast

The Trabocchi Coast, which corresponds to the coastal stretch Adriatic of province of Chieti (Abruzzo), is a 70-kilometer coast from Ortona to San Salvo, in Italy. It comprises a number of coves and reefs below the hills that end at the Adriatic Sea marked by the spread of Trabucco – fishing machines on piles. Many of the towns on the Coast maintain their own characteristics and traditions.

Municipalities


The municipalities that compose it are part of the province of Chieti and are as follows:


 * Francavilla al Mare
 * Ortona
 * San Vito Chietino
 * Rocca San Giovanni
 * Fossacesia
 * Torino di Sangro
 * Casalbordino
 * Vasto
 * San Salvo

Geography
The coastal strip begins in the north at the mouth of the Foro river (between the municipalities of Francavilla al Mare and Ortona) and ends in the south at the mouth of the Trigno river. It is varied in appearance, with stretches of low and sandy beach (as in Francavilla, Ortona, Casalbordino, Vasto and San Salvo) and areas of shingle beach in Fossacesia and Torino di Sangro, as well as high and rocky sections in San Vito Chietino and Rocca San Giovanni and stretches of pebbles, often separated by cliffs; the presence of the trabocchi on the coast, however, also continues towards the south, along the entire Molise coast up to the Gargano.

The coast winds through hills and valleys that end on the sea, creating natural environments of various kinds. The urbanization that characterizes the Adriatic coast from Rimini to Ortona is not as much in evidence here, even if building speculation and "francavillizzazione” (the construction of buildings close to the coastline that limit access and visibility of the sea, as happened in Francavilla al Mare) threaten the integrity of the natural environment.

Economy
The region has a strong economic induction thanks to tourism, very present thanks to the exceptional landscape of the coast that has remained in the imagination of many foreigners as a symbol of Italy.

Cycle track


Along the Trabocchi coast there are plans for an Adriatic cycle way (1000 km, to run along the Adriatic coast from the Delta of the River Po to Apulia) along the abandoned line of the Adriatic railway (49 km).

Beaches

 * Lido Riccio (Ortona)
 * Punta Ripari di Giobbe (Ortona)
 * Lido Saraceni (Ortona)
 * Punta Acquabella (Ortona)
 * Punta Mucchiola (San Vito)
 * Molo di San Vito Marina
 * Calata Turchino (San Vito)
 * Punta del Guardiano (San Vito)
 * Valle Grotte (San Vito)
 * Punta Cavalluccio (Rocca San Giovanni)
 * Costa di Fossacesia
 * Golfo di Venere (Fossacesia)
 * Le Morge (Torino di Sangro)
 * Punta Penna (Casalbordino -Vasto)
 * Punta Aderci (Vasto)
 * Punta Vignola (Vasto)
 * Lido di San Salvo Marina

Trabocchi


Many trabocchi of the coast have been converted into restaurants.


 * Trabocco Fosso Canale
 * Trabocco Punta Tufano
 * Trabocco San Gregorio
 * Trabocco Turchino
 * Trabocco Valle Grotte
 * Trabocco Sasso della Cajana
 * Trabocco Punta Isolata
 * Trabocco Punta Cavalluccio
 * Trabocco Pesce Palombo
 * Trabocco Punta Punciosa
 * Trabocco Punta Rocciosa
 * Trabocco Le Morge
 * Trabocco di Casalbordino
 * Trabocco di Punta Penna
 * Trabocco di Vasto Marina
 * Trabocco Zi' Nicola di San Salvo

San Vito and D’Annunzio
"... a small rural house consists of two rooms on the first floor of a small room on the ground floor and a porch; and, next, a large vegetable garden of orange and other fruit trees, and under the sea cliffs, endless views of coastline and sea mounts, and above all, a great freedom, as a retreat of holy hermits ..."

- (Gabriele d'Annunzio, in a letter to Barbara Leoni)

The seaside town of San Vito Chietino is famous because the stretch of Trabocchi Coast, halfway between San Vito and Fossacesia, there is a hermitage where the 800 was built there a home to fishermen, that Gabriele d'Annunzio in 1889 bought and renovated it for his personal living with her lover Barbara Leoni. The house and the hermitage everything is called hermitage D'Annunzio, or promontory D'Annunzio, and is now a private museum. Architectural style seems to be a typical building of the nineteenth century rural architecture of Abruzzo. The part of the building used by the poet is not experiencing any degradation. The plant has a square base. The facade on the square is on two levels with elements in medieval style Lombard. On the ground floor there is a porch that follows the upstairs including the central part of the facade is advanced to the rest of the building. On the sides there are two arches. The front is in sandstone.

D'Annunzio as a setting also a part of his novel Il trionfo della morte (1894), in which the protagonist Giorgio Aurispa arrives in the small village sanvitese with her lover Hippolyta. Back from disappointment in the country of Guardiagrele of the discovery of financial ruin of his noble family, Giorgio seeking rest in the sea, and studies the Thus Spake Zarathustra of Nietzsche, learning the philosophy of Superman. George, however, fails to fuse his naturalistic thought and what superoministico disruptive, and experience it first witnessing scenes of popular superstition in San Vito, when it is feared that a child is kidnapped at night by witches, and when a child is found drowned into the sea by his mother; and then going on pilgrimage in the nearby village of Casalbordino. There, at the Shrine of Our Lady of Miracles, Giorgio Aurispa is overwhelmed by the horror of superstition of local farmers, which are lowered to the states most miserable, reduced to larvae, to achieve the miracle of Madonna.

Today on the promontory restaurants have sprung up dedicated to the poet Pescara, and also a public park with a gazebo, where is buried the mistress of d'Annunzio: Barbara Leoni.

Documentation
Between 2011 and 2012 the director Anna Cavasinni made a documentary lasting 58 minutes on the coast teatina relative to overflow. The documentary is titled precisely "The Trabocchi Coast" and is released on DVD. In these months being shown in major centers in the Abruzzo coast and the screening is followed by a debate with the public and with the authorities. The documentary is part of a project documentation and memory enhancement Abruzzo that the Cultural Association Territories-Link is conducting a long time.

Current events
Since 2007 is an ongoing harsh mobilization of the population on the coast and in the Abruzzi, aimed at preventing the construction of mining and Oil processing in the territory.

The first plant that has aroused the concern of the people was the so-called middle oils, or a large plant (127,000 m2) dehydrosulphurization of crude oil, designed by Eni. The affected area is to Feudo, in the heart of wine production of Abruzzo. The fears of the population regarding the impact on health of exposure to hydrogen sulfide, the destruction of the flourishing agricultural economy and the negative effects on tourism. The plant is expected to arise in fact very close to the coast of the Trabocchi.

Recently, the regional law n. 14 of 2009, suspended the construction of the center, but many companies have submitted projects for the construction of offshore platforms for the extraction and processing of oil, is not affected by this law.

As published May 6, 2010, from the website www.diebucke.it, April 18 took place in San Vito a demonstration against the petrolizzazione Abruzzo coast that has gathered about 5000 participants. Also according to the article by Francesco Amoroso, "The people of Abruzzo are engaging pressuring local politicians by sending them letters and e-mail (addresses are easily available on the Internet) trying to compensate for the pressure on the other side shall be held by Eni and Mog."