Bears are the thing everyone asks about in Abruzzo, and the honest answer is that you probably will not see one. The Marsican brown bear, a small, isolated population, survives in the mountains of the Apennines, and the National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise, created in 1923, is its stronghold. The park also protects wolves, chamois and deer, and a lot of ancient beech forest, some of which is part of a group of European beech forests listed by UNESCO. Seeing a bear is rare, but a roadside sign and a bear-shaped warning tell you where you are.
Villetta Barrea and Civitella Alfedena are two villages beside the Lago di Barrea, a reservoir that fills a valley under steep wooded slopes. Civitella, with only three hundred inhabitants, has a small museum of the wolf and a good view of the lake. Villetta Barrea has a bit more, with a few shops and bars. Pescasseroli, the park's main village, is a short ride away. All have small hotels, and the food in the area is hearty, with lamb, pecorino, mountain sausages and soups of beans and chestnuts.
The road through the park, the old state road, runs along the valley between steep forested slopes and open meadows, with gentle bends that suit a relaxed pace. The surface is mostly good, but the mountains throw rock and gravel onto the road after rain, and wildlife can step out at dusk. Winters are cold, and snow can close the higher roads. Autumn, when the beeches turn gold and red and the deer are rutting, is the best season, with clear air and quiet roads. Summer weekends are busy with walkers.
Fuel is a problem to plan. The villages have little or none, and the nearest town of any size is Castel di Sangro, about nineteen kilometres away, with nearly six thousand people. Fill the tank there or at Pescasseroli before you go into the park.
This part of Italy is also on the way to the Via Appia, the Roman road that runs from Rome to Brindisi, and the ride joins the two together, ancient and wild.