Caramanico Terme – Contrada Riga – Decontra – Caramanico Terme
Departure: Caramanico Terme
Itinerary: Caramanico Terme – SS487 Direction San Valentino – right for Crossroad for Roccamorice – right for Valle Giumentina – Contrada Riga -Decontra -Valle Giumentina – Contrada Sant’ Elia -(?Vecchia Via di Chieti- The Old Road of Chieti) – Contrada Riga – Caramanico Terme.
Distance: 32km (22 on asphalted road and 10 on dirt roads and grass, mud and stone paths).
Travelling time: 2 hours and 30 minutes.
Difficulty: Medium – Easy.
Difference in ascent: 200mt.
Difference in descent: 200mt.
Route:
Caramanico Terme – Roccamorice crossroad – follow Roccamorice direction – turn right to Piano Valli – turn right, follow the dirt road, mud, grass and stone through the fields of Riga.
Arrive on the communal Road Riga Decontra – turn left Decontra direction – from Decontra, follow Eremo San Bartolomeo direction – arrive at the Piano delle Valli – go up on the left the dirt road Sant’Elia – Scagnano direction – arrive at Sant’ Elia, go left on asphalt road (Case Cavallucci) and then follow dirt road Riga direction, which joint to the old Road of Chieti, grass mud path and stone which arrives on the communal road Riga Decontra – turn right and go down Caramanicodirection.
Description:
The course that winds within the “Parco Nazionale della Majella” (National Park of Majella) on the plateau of the “Valle Giumentina” (Giumentina Valley), at the foot of the Majestic Mother Mountain “La Majella”.
An area with a high concentration of “Tholos“, characteristic huts and pastoral complexes in dry stone created by the stone raking of the fields to be cultivated by man, that formed “i maceri” (the rubbles), heaps of rocks from which evolve and take material the “Tholos” architectures that have origin in Puglia, from the phenomenon of the Transhumance.
During the return you go along “La vecchia Via di Chieti” (The old Road of Chieti) a road of historic importance made of stone and dirt that was covered by oxen pulled wagons that connected the towns of the high Val Pescara with Chieti.
