Bed and breakfast accommodation in Chieti Monasteries

Sprawling along a ridge above the River Pescara, with the Apennines rising behind, Chieti is a provincial capital in the Abruzzo region. Very much a town of two halves, with the modern sector straggling around the railway and motorway, it’s known as a jump off point for exploring the mountain wilderness of the Abruzzo Apennines. Chieti is an administrative centre, but the economic focus is agriculture, particularly cereals, olives, tobacco and, above all, grapes. Enjoy a glass of Montepulciano d’Abruzzo or a white Trebbiano, and the chances are high it will have been produced in Chieti. 

Visitors concentrate on the old town, with its fine Roman remains, churches and the excellent Museo Archeologico Nazionale degli Abruzzo, home to the superb 6th-century BC Warrior of Capestrano, a 2-metre tall statue of a Picene fighter. The museum can also fill you in on the pre-history of this little known or explored area of Italy, before you take in the Roman sites, which include three temples, a theatre, baths and an underground cistern.

Chieti’s religious history is encapsulated by the range of its churches. The Cattedrale di San Giustino was probably founded in the 8th century and dedicated to an early bishop. Of the original building, only the vaulted crypt, the resting place of San Giustino’s relics, remains. The austere exterior is a sharp contrast with the opulence of the 17th-century Baroque interior, all icing-cake stucco and gilding. 

Nearby is the Oratory of the Fraternity of the Dead Brotherhood, a charitable secular order dating from at least the 15th century. The Fraternity organises the Good Friday procession, said to be Italy’s oldest, an event which tells you more about religion’s role in local life than any building. Tall wooden figures of Christ and the Virgin, accompanied by hooded figures and musicians, are carried at night through the packed streets. One of these, the Corso, is the site of the huge Franciscan preaching church of San Francisco, dating from 1239, and drastically altered over the centuries.