Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Italic Temples at Schiavi d'Abruzzo


The Appenines are described as the backbone of Italy, and we discovered an army marching for power across the brows of the mountains in a long file.
These wind turbines did not, to my eye, detract from the landscape - they never do.  Clothed in clouds, they looked as if they belonged.

Driving from Carunchio to Schiavi d'Abruzzo showed some majestic scenery.



And as the town appeared in the distance, I wondered if the clouds would catch up with us.


Our destination was, in fact, past Schiavi, as we were hunting the Italic (Pre-Roman) temples built nearby.


This bush - a type of broom? - grew by the layby where we parked the car.


This was clearly one of nature's gardens.


The vegetation was lush.


The ground beneath our feet was squelchy.  I think there must have been springs to create such bogginess as elsewhere was dry.

It transpired that we had entered the temple site by the back door (an easier path from a parking place lay downhill of where we stopped)


I am very partial to a bit of ancient wall


and this was certainly well up to standard!


This is a temple reconstruction


while these more ancient remnants are somewhat protected from the elements.


Wonderful change of scale in this terracotta floor.


and a hint of more pillars.


We were the only people there, and the site was very peaceful.  It was easy to imagine why it had been chosen as a sacred place.  The majestic views of the cloud-clad Majella Mountains was awe-inspiring and the atmosphere was contemplative and special.




We were surrounded by the treasures of nature.



Eventually, it was time to leave and set off homewards


Past Schiavi d'Abbruzzo once more,


Past more mountains

and glimpses of Lago di Bomba to tempt another excursion on another day.

4 comments:

Frances said...

Sue thanks for sharing all your lovely photos, it seems a lovely place,

re wind turbines, when we were going to have them here I thought it was a great plan, that was until I learnt more about them and the main reason for building them, they produce only small amounts of electricity at very random intervals and are only viable for 25 years when they become obsolete, so in 25 years those mountains will have rusting decaying turbines on them,
the main reason for putting up wind turbines is to sell green units, the most common way most of us see this is as off sets to air travel, but the most money from selling is to companies, the law says all companies have to be a percentage green which was supposed to mean they would clean up the way they operate and not send out so much pollution, instead they buy the required percentage of green units and do nothing to change the way they operate, so they are still sending out pollutants, it is since finding all this out that I have been against large scale wind factories,

Angela said...

What fabulous pictures. Looks like you had a brilliant trip

island threads said...

hello Sue this morning I was invited to a little game and now invite you to join in if you wish/have time,

The rules of this game are:
Inform who invited you
List the 10 things you like to do
Invite another 10 bloggers to do the same

best thoughts Frances

Karen said...

so you've been travelling too!! have the brains unscrambled yet??