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Villa
Casale Casale
The property takes
its name from its location on Via del Casale in Valle San Giovanni, a small town
near Teramo in Abruzzo Italy. It is midway between the Adriatic Sea and
the Gran Sasso. Rome is about 110 miles away. Casale was
completed in 2004. It has two bedrooms and sleeps six people
comfortably. There is a fully equipped kitchen, a bathroom with an
enclosed shower, a wood burning stove for heating and a washing
machine. Casale is a great place to center your vist to Abruzzo
while at the same time a perfect getaway from major tourist attractions.
It provides peace and tranquility as well as the opportunity to take enjoyable
daytrips to nearby beaches, fortress towns, and mountains.The property takes its
name from its location on Via del Casale in Valle San Giovanni, a small town
near Teramo in Abruzzo Italy. It is midway between the Adriatic Sea and
the Gran Sasso. Rome is about 110 miles away. Casale was
completed in 2004. It has two bedrooms and sleeps six people
comfortably. There is a fully equipped kitchen, a bathroom with an
enclosed shower, a wood burning stove for heating and a washing
machine. Casale is a great place to center your vist to Abruzzo
while at the same time a perfect getaway from major tourist attractions.
It provides peace and tranquility as well as the opportunity to take enjoyable
daytrips to nearby beaches, fortress towns, and mountains
A villa was originally an upper-class country house,
though since its origins in Roman times the idea and function of a villa has
evolved considerably. After the fall of the Republic, a villa became a small,
fortified farming compound, gradually re-evolving through the Middle Ages into
luxurious, upper-class country homes. In modern parlance it can refer to a
specific type of detached suburban dwelling. A villa was originally a Roman country house built for
the upper classes. According to Pliny the Elder, there were several kinds of
villas, the villa urbana, which was a country seat that could easily be reached
from Rome (or another city) for a night or two, and the villa rustica, the
farm-house estate, permanently occupied by the servants who had charge generally
of the estate, which would centre on the villa itself, perhaps only seasonally
occupied. There was the domus, a city house for the middle class, and insulae,
lower class apartment buildings. Petronius Satyricon describes a wide range of
Roman dwellings. There were a concentration of Imperial villas near the Bay of
Naples, especially on the Isle of Capri, at Monte Circeo on the coast and at
Antium (Anzio). Wealthy Romans escaped the summer heat in the hills round Rome,
especially around Tibur (Tivoli) and Frascati (cf Hadrian's Villa). Cicero is
said to have possessed no fewer than seven villas, the oldest of which was near
Arpinum, which he inherited. Pliny the Younger had three or four, of which the
example near Laurentium is the best known from his descriptions. Roman writers refer with satisfaction to the
self-sufficiency of their villas, where they drank their own wine and pressed
their own oil. This was an affectation of urban aristocrats playing at being
old-fashioned virtuous Roman farmers, but the economic independence of later
rural villas was a symptom of the increasing economic fragmentation of the Roman
empire. When complete working villas were donated to the Christian church, they
served as the basis for monasteries that survived the disruptions of the Gothic
War and the Lombards. An outstanding example of such a villa-turned-monastery
was Monte Cassino. Numerous Roman villas have been meticulously examined in
England. Like their Italian counterparts, they were complete working agrarian
societies of fields and vineyards, perhaps even tileworks or quarries, ranged
round a high-status power center with its baths and gardens. The grand villa at
Woodchester preserved its mosaic floors when the Anglo-Saxon parish church was
built (not by chance) upon its site. Burials in the churchyard as late as the
18th century had to be punched through the intact mosaic floors. The even more
palatial villa rustica at Fishbourne near Winchester was built
uncharacteristically as a large open rectangle with porticos enclosing gardens
that was entered through a portico. Towards the end of the 3rd century, Roman
towns in Britain ceased to expand: like patricians near the centre of the
empire, Roman Britons withdrew from the cities to their villas, which entered on
a palatial building phase, a "golden age" of villa life. Villae rusticae are
essential in the Empire's economy. Two kinds of villa plan in Roman Britain may be
characteristic of Roman villas in general. The more usual plan extended wings of
rooms all opening onto a linking portico, which might be extended at right
angles, even to enclose a courtyard. The other kind featured an aisled central
hall like a basilica, suggesting the villa owner's magisterial role. The villa
buildings were often independent structures linked by their enclosed courtyards.
Timber-framed construction, carefully fitted with mortices and tenons and
dowelled together, set on stone footings, were the rule, replaced by stone
buildings for the important ceremonial rooms. Traces of window glass have been
found as well as ironwork window grilles. As the Roman Empire collapsed in the fourth and fifth
centuries, the villas were more and more isolated and came to be protected by
walls. Though in England the villas were abandoned, looted, and burned by
Anglo-Saxon invaders in the fifth century, other areas had large working villas
donated by aristocrats and territorial magnates to individual monks that often
became the nucleus of famous monasteries. In this way, the villa system of late
Antiquity was preserved into the early Medieval period. Saint Benedict
established his influential monastery of Monte Cassino in the ruins of a villa
at Subiaco that had belonged to Nero; there are fuller details at the entry for
Benedict. Around 590, Saint Eligius was born in a highly-placed Gallo-Roman
family at the 'villa' of Chaptelat near Limoges, in Aquitaine (now France). The
abbey at Stavelot was founded ca 650 on the domain of a former villa near Liège
and the abbey of Vézelay had a similar founding. As late as 698, Willibrord
established an abbey at a Roman villa of Echternach, in Luxemburg near Trier,
which was presented to him by Irmina, daughter of Dagobert II, king of the
Franks. In post-Roman times a villa referred to a
self-sufficient, usually fortified Italian or Gallo-Roman farmstead. It was
economically as self-sufficient as a village and its inhabitants, who might be
legally tied to it as serfs were villeins. The Merovingian Franks inherited the
concept, but the later French term was basti or bastide. Villa (or its cognates) is part of many Spanish
placenames, like Vila Real and Villadiego: a villa is a town with a charter
(fuero) of lesser importance than a ciudad ("city"). When it is associated with
a personal name, villa was probably used in the original sense of a country
estate rather than a chartered town. Later evolution has made the Hispanic
distinction between villas and ciudades a purely honorific one. In 14th and 15th century Italy, a 'villa' once more
connoted a country house, sometimes the family seat of power like Villa
Caprarola, more often designed for seasonal pleasure, usually located within
easy distance of a city. The first examples of Renaissance villa dates back to
the age of Lorenzo de' Medici, and they are mostly located in the Italian region
of Tuscany (the "Medici villas") such as the Villa di Poggio a Caiano by
Giuliano da Sangallo (begun in 1470) or the Villa Medici in Fiesole (since
1450), probably the first villa created under the instructions of Leon Battista
Alberti, who theorized in his De re aedificatoria the features of the new idea
of villa. The gardens are from that period considered as a fundamental link
between the residential building and the country outside. From Tuscany the idea
of villa was spread again through Italy and Europe. Rome had more than its share of villas with easy reach of
the small sixteenth-century city: the progenitor, the first villa suburbana
built since Antiquity, was the Belvedere or palazzetto, designed by Antonio
Pollaiuolo and built on the slope above the Vatican Palace. The Villa Madama,
the design of which, attributed to Raphael and carried out by Giulio Romano in
1520, was one of the most influential private houses ever built; elements
derived from Villa Madama appeared in villas through the 19th century. Villa
Albani was built near the Porta Salaria. Other are the Villa Borghese; the Villa
Doria Pamphili (1650); the Villa Giulia of Pope Julius III (1550), designed by
Vignola. However, many among the most beautiful Roman villas, like
Villa Ludovisi and Villa Montalto, were destroyed during the late nineteenth
century in the wake of the real estate bubble that took place in Rome after the
seat of government of a united Italy was established at Rome. The cool hills of Frascati gained the Villa Aldobrandini
(1592); the Villa Falconieri and the Villa Mondragone. The Villa d'Este near Tivoli is famous for the water play
in its terraced gardens. The Villa Medici was on the edge of Rome, on the
Pincian Hill, when it was built in 1540. In the later 16th century the villas designed by Andrea
Palladio around Vicenza and along the Brenta Canal in Venetian territories,
remained influential for over four hundred years. Palladio often unified all the
farm buildings into the architecture of his extended villas (as at Villa
Emo). In the early 18th century the English took up the term.
Thanks to the revival of interest in Palladio and Inigo Jones, soon
neo-palladian villas dotted the valley of the River Thames. In many ways Thomas
Jefferson's Monticello is a villa. The Marble Hill House in England was
conceived originally as "villas" in the 18th-century sense. In the nineteenth century, villa was extended to describe
any suburban house that was free-standing in a landscaped plot of ground, as
opposed to a 'terrace' of joined houses. By the time 'semi-detached villas' were
being erected at the turn of the twentieth century, the term collapsed under its
extension and overuse. The suburban "villa" became a "bungalow" after World War
I in post-colonial Britain, and by extension the term is used for suburban
bungalows in both Australia and New Zealand, especially those dating from the
period of rapid suburban development between 1920 and 1950. The villa concept
lives on in southern Europe and in Latin America, where villas are associated
with upper-class social position and lifestyle. Modern architecture also produced some important examples
of buildings called "villas": Abruzzo Provinces Until 1963 it was part of the Abruzzi
region with Molise. The term Abruzzi derives from the time when the region was
part of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the territory was administered as
Abruzzo Citeriore (Nearer Abruzzo) and Abruzzo Ulteriore I and II (Farther
Abruzzo I and II ), that being nearer and farther from Naples, the capital of
the kingdom. Abruzzo Citeriore is present day Chieti province. Abruzzo Ulteriore
I comprises the Teramo and Pescara provinces; Abruzzo Ulteriore II now comprises
the Province of L'Aquila. The regional
capital of Abruzzo is the city of L'Aquila. The region is divided into four
provinces: L'Aquila (the largest), Teramo, Chieti (the most populous) and
Pescara, Abruzzo's main economic centre. The four provinces are further divided
into 305 municipalities. The name Abruzzo
appears to derive from the Latin form Aprutium. The name Aprutium, however, was
not in use in Roman times when the region was known at various times as Picenum,
Sabina et Samnium, Flaminia et Picenum and/or Campania et Samnium. This region
was known as Aprutium in the middle ages arising from four possible sources.
Many think it is apparently a corruption of Praetutium, or rather of the name of
the people Praetutii, applied to their chief city, Interamnaes, now present day
Teramo. Another etymology is from the Latin "aper" (boar) so that Aprutium was
the "land of boars" or from "abruptum" (rugged, steep). A more recent etymology
is from the Latin expression "a Bruttiis" (from the Bruttii) meaning the land
that began from the Bruzi people, who moved south to occupy
Calabria. From the early to mid-20th
century Abruzzo's population was in decline. Beginning in the 1970s, this trend began
to reverse as Abruzzo's population grew due to a net migration into the region.
[3] In 2001, Italy's decennial census showed Abruzzo had 1,262,392 residents,
a slight increase over the previous decade. With the exception of L'Aquila,
whose population remained essentially unchanged, Abruzzo's other provinces had
small increases in population. The provinces of L’Aquila, Teramo and Pescara, each
had a 2001 population just under 300,000 while the Province of Chieti had
a population just over of 380,000. The regional accents of Abruzzo include
Teramano, Abruzzese Orientale Adriatico and Abruzzese Occidentale. The first two
form part of the Italiano meridionale-interno dialect of southern Italy also
known simply as "Neapolitan" due to the region having been part of the Kingdom
of Naples and the Two Sicilies, while the Italian of L'Aquila Province is
related to the Osco-Umbro dialect of central Italy, including the one of Rome.
It should be noted that Abruzzo's Italian dialects are not particularly marked.
In fact, Harvard University bases an intensive summer language program in Vasto,
a resort town on Abruzzo's southern coast. There is, however, a small Albanian
linguistic area at Penne, in the Province of Pescara. The region covers 10,794 km² almost
two-thirds of which is mountainous. The remainder of the land consists of hills
sloping to a narrow plain that runs for most of the 129 kilometre long Adriatic
coastline. The Apennine mountain chain runs through the Abruzzo where it reaches
its greatest elevations on the Italian pennisula, the highest peaks being Corno
Grande (Gran Sasso massif) (2914m) and Monte Amaro (Maiella-group) (2795m). The
main rivers are the Aterno-Pescara, the Sangro and the Tronto. Abruzzo has
experienced a number of major earthquakes over the centuries. Although rich in natural beauty and
history, Abruzzo is only just starting to be discovered by mass tourism.
Abruzzo's wealth of castles and medieval towns, especially near the town of
L'Aquila has earned it in some quarters the nickname of "Abruzzoshire", by
analogy with the "Chiantishire" nickname sometimes used to refer to the Chianti
area of Tuscany. Skiing. Abruzzo
has 21 ski areas with 368 km. of runs, all within a few hours of Rome. The most
developed resort being Roccaraso, followed by Campo Felice, and Campo
Imperatore. Located in the highest region of the Apennines, these ski areas are
at heights nearly comparable to many Alpine resorts. Because of their proximity
to the Adriatic and winter precipitation patterns, they often have more snow
than the Alps. Abruzzo also is popular for cross country skiing, especially on
the high plain of Campo Imperatore in the Gran Sasso as well as the Piana Grande in the Majella.
L'Aquila Chieti Pescara Teramo
Abruzzo is a region in central Italy
lying just 70 miles east of Rome and bordering Marche to the north, Lazio to the
west and south-west, Molise to the south-east and the Adriatic Sea to the east.
Although geographically a central region, ISTAT (the Italian statistical
authority) considers it part of the Mezzogiorno or Southern Italy.
Since the 1950s, Abruzzo had steady
economic growth. In 1951, Abruzzo ‘s per capita income or GDP was 53% of that of
Northern Italy, the nation's richest region. By 1971, Abruzzo was at 65% and, by
1994, per capita income was at 76% of Northern Italy's per capita income, giving
Abruzzo the highest per capita GDP of the Mezziogiorno surpassing the growth
rate of every other region of Italy. The construction of superhighways from Rome
to Teramo (A25) and Rome to Pescara (A24) opened Abruzzo to easy access, state
and private investment in the region increased, and Abruzzo attained higher per
capita education levels and greater productivity growth than the rest of the
Mezziogiourno. As a result, Abruzzo's industrial sector expanded rapidly,
especially in mechanical engineering, transportation equipment and
telecommunications. [1] As of 2003, Abruzzo's per capita GDP was 19,506 EUR or
84% of the national average of 23,181 EUR and well outpacing that of the South
(15,808 EUR).[2]
