Pescara: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Until 1927 Pescara was only the small town on the south bank of the river, squeezed inside a Spanish fortress, and the town on the north bank was a separate place called Castellammare Adriatico. This walk stays in that original Pescara, a few streets around Corso Manthonè where Gabriele D’Annunzio was born. Ninety minutes, all flat; go in the morning, because the museums close early and the street wakes up only at night.
The ten best sights in Pescara
-
1D’Annunzio’s Birthplace
The house where Gabriele D’Annunzio was born in 1863; check opening hours, they are short
2Museo delle Genti d’AbruzzoThe best museum in town: Abruzzo’s shepherds and craftsmen, inside the old Bourbon prison
3San Cetteo CathedralA 1930s cathedral with D’Annunzio’s mother buried inside
4Basilio Cascella MuseumThree generations of one family of artists, in their own workshop
5MediamuseumCinema museum on the square by the old town; Ennio Flaiano was born in this city
6Vittoria Colonna MuseumModern art by the sea, named after the Renaissance poet who was Marchioness of Pescara
7Piazza della RinascitaThe main square of the new town; locals call it Piazza Salotto, the living room
-
8Cascella’s Ship
The marble ship on the seafront, the symbol of the city
-
9Lungomare Matteotti
Kilometres of beach clubs; a free stretch of sand is never far, look for spiaggia libera
-
10Ponte del Mare
The bridge for walkers and bikes over the river mouth; best at sunset
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in Pescara →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Pescara:
Free walking tours in Pescara
The fortress town and its poet
Until 1927 Pescara was only the small town on the south bank of the river, squeezed inside a Spanish fortress, and the town on the north bank was a separate place called Castellammare Adriatico. This walk stays in that original Pescara, a few streets around Corso Manthonè where Gabriele D’Annunzio was born. Ninety minutes, all flat; go in the morning, because the museums close early and the street wakes up only at night.
- Museo delle Genti d’Abruzzo · The museum sits in the Bagno Borbonico, the Bourbon prison, which is the only large piece left of the fortress the Spanish viceroys built here in the sixteenth century. The rest of the fortress was pulled down after Italian unification. Inside are the tools, costumes and sheepfolds of the shepherds who walked their flocks every year between the Abruzzo mountains and the plains of Puglia.
- Corso Manthonè · The street is named after Gabriele Manthonè, a Pescara-born officer who was minister of war of the short-lived Neapolitan Republic of 1799 and was hanged when the Bourbons returned. Today it is the spine of the old town, and from about ten at night its bars fill the whole street.
- D’Annunzio’s Birthplace · Gabriele D’Annunzio was born in this house on 12 March 1863. He became Italy’s most famous poet, a war hero who flew over Vienna to drop leaflets, and in 1919 he led the occupation of the city of Fiume and ruled it for more than a year. The rooms keep the family furniture and the bed he slept in as a boy.
- San Cetteo Cathedral · The cathedral was rebuilt in the 1930s, and D’Annunzio paid for part of the work on one condition: that his mother, Luisa de Benedictis, be buried inside. Her tomb is inside, and he also gave the church a painting of Saint Francis by Guercino.
- Mediamuseum · Pescara’s other famous son is Ennio Flaiano, born here in 1910, who co-wrote Fellini’s La Dolce Vita and 8½. The city gives a film and literature prize in his name every summer, and this museum on Piazza Alessandrini is devoted to cinema, with projectors, posters and costumes.
- Basilio Cascella Museum · In 1895 the painter Basilio Cascella opened a lithography workshop in this building, printing postcards and an illustrated magazine of Abruzzo. His sons Tommaso and Michele turned to ceramics and painting, and his grandsons Andrea and Pietro became sculptors; three generations hang side by side here.
Castellammare: the town of the beach
North of the river is the half of Pescara that grew up with the railway and the beach in the late nineteenth century, as the town of Castellammare Adriatico. It was joined to old Pescara in 1927, heavily bombed in 1943 and rebuilt as a modern grid, which is why it looks newer than its name. An hour and a half, flat; in summer do it late in the afternoon and end on the seafront.
- Mercato Muzii · The market of the north bank is named after Michele Muzii, and the mornings here are the time to see what Abruzzo eats: pecorino from the mountains, ventricina sausage, greens and fish. By early afternoon the stalls are closed.
- Piazza della Rinascita · Its official name means Rebirth Square, a name that speaks of the rebuilding after the Allied bombing of 1943 destroyed much of this part of the city. Everyone calls it Piazza Salotto, the living-room square, because the whole town meets here for the evening walk.
- Corso Umberto I · Corso Umberto is the pedestrian street that runs from the square straight to the sea, the old main street of Castellammare. It is the shopping street of the city, and the direct line to the water is the reason the evening crowd drifts down it towards the beach.
- Cascella’s Ship · The white marble ship standing in a fountain at the end of the street was made by the Pescara sculptor Pietro Cascella in 1987. Twenty years earlier, Cascella was one of the authors of the international memorial at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the long stone monument at the end of the railway tracks.
- Lungomare Matteotti · The seafront runs for kilometres north towards Montesilvano, lined with stabilimenti, beach clubs that rent umbrellas and loungers by the day. Between them are stretches of spiaggia libera, free beach, where you can just put down a towel; in August come before ten to find space.
- Vittoria Colonna Museum · The city’s museum of modern art is named after Vittoria Colonna, one of the great poets of the Italian Renaissance and a close friend of Michelangelo. She was Marchioness of Pescara by marriage to Ferrante d’Avalos, the general who won the battle of Pavia in 1525.
Pines, liqueur and jazz
The south shore is the Pescara that visitors miss: a pine forest between the town and the sea, villas of the early twentieth century, a theatre among the trees and the stadium of the city’s football club. It starts on the long bridge over the river mouth and ends among the pines. About two hours, flat; in summer bring water and leave the pineta before dark.
- Ponte del Mare · Opened in 2009, the Ponte del Mare is a cable-stayed bridge for pedestrians and cyclists only, about 466 metres long, one of the longest of its kind in Italy. It crosses the mouth of the Pescara river and joins the two halves of the city by the sea.
- Marina di Pescara · The river is called the Aterno up in the mountains and the Pescara only in its lower course, and the Romans named their port at this mouth Aternum. Today the fishing boats keep to the river canal and the yachts to the marina beside it; the breakwater is a favourite evening walk with a view back over the whole seafront.
- Teatro D’Annunzio · An open-air theatre at the edge of the pine forest, and since 1969 the home of Pescara Jazz, one of the oldest jazz festivals in Europe. The festival is in July, and the big names sell out.
- Pineta Dannunziana · This is what remains of the natural forest of Aleppo pines along the coast, now a protected reserve inside the city, named after D’Annunzio. In the early twentieth century the villas of the new seaside resort were built along its edges, and some of them still stand on the streets around it.
- Aurum · The building opened in 1910 as the Kursaal, the casino and dance hall of the new resort. It then became the factory of Aurum, a brandy liqueur flavoured with oranges, whose name came from D’Annunzio; it is Latin for gold, with a wink at aurantium, orange. Today it is the city’s arts and events centre.
- Stadio Adriatico · The Stadio Adriatico opened in 1955 and was renovated to host the opening of the Mediterranean Games of 2009. It carries the name of Giovanni Cornacchia, a hurdler of the city, and is the home of Pescara Calcio, whose fans call the team il Delfino, the dolphin.
Getting to Pescara and getting around
- Abruzzo Airport · About four kilometres from the centre; city bus or a taxi of about a quarter of an hour
- Pescara Centrale · Adriatic trains north to Bologna and south to Bari; for Rome the bus is quicker
- Bus Terminal · Next to the main station: coaches to Rome, L’Aquila and the hill towns
- Pescara Porta Nuova · The station of the south bank, a short walk from the old town
Cheap eats in Pescara
Abruzzo is shepherd country, and its street food is arrosticini: small skewers of mutton grilled over a long, narrow brazier and eaten by the dozen, about a euro each. Around them are porchetta in a bread roll, sheep’s pecorino, and the city’s own cake, the parrozzo. Prices are well below Tel Aviv; a standing lunch is five to ten euros.
- Ritrovo del Parrozzo · Parrozzo by the slice with a coffee, about 3-5 €
- Scannella Arrosticini · Butcher’s arrosticini to take away and grill, about 0.80-1.20 € a skewer
- Mercato Coperto Portanuova · Porchetta rolls and cheese at the covered market, about 4-7 €
- Mercato Muzii · Pecorino, olives and fruit for a picnic, about 5-10 €
- Pasticceria Michetti · Bocconotti and coffee standing at the counter, about 1.50-4 €
- Pizzeria Serafino · Pizza by the slice near the market streets, about 2-4 €
- Panificio Doppio Zero · Bread and pizza bianca from the bakery, about 1-3 €
- Gelateria Bar Bologna · Gelato for the evening walk, about 2.50-4 €
Museums in Pescara
Pescara’s museums tell three stories: the shepherds of Abruzzo, the poet D’Annunzio, and a family of artists; twenty minutes up the hill, Chieti keeps the region’s ancient past.
- Museo delle Genti d’Abruzzo · Shepherds, crafts and the old Bourbon prison
- D’Annunzio’s Birthplace · The poet’s birthplace on Corso Manthonè
- Archaeological Museum, Chieti · The Warrior of Capestrano, in Chieti
- Basilio Cascella Museum · Three generations of the Cascella family
Nature and day trips near Pescara
Pescara sits between two pine forests and the sea, and within an hour and a half are the coast of the trabocchi to the south and the highest mountains of the Apennines to the west.
- Pineta Dannunziana · Shade and trails between the city and the sea
- Pineta di Santa Filomena · The second pine forest, on the north edge of town
- Trabocco Turchino · The fishing machines on the cliffs of the south coast
- Campo Imperatore · The plateau they call Little Tibet
- Punta Aderci · A coastal reserve of coves near Vasto
Things to do in Pescara with kids
With children: a long flat beach with shallow water, bikes over the bridge, a marble ship in a fountain and a castle on a mountain ridge.
- Lungomare Matteotti · Shallow water and beach clubs with playgrounds
- Ponte del Mare · Ride bikes across the river mouth
- Cascella’s Ship · The ship in the fountain
- Rocca Calascio · A real castle on a ridge
Nightlife in Pescara
Pescara has the liveliest nights on the Adriatic coast south of Rimini: the old town around Corso Manthonè fills after ten, and in summer the beach clubs turn into bars.
- Corso Manthonè · The bars of Pescara Vecchia, after ten
- Lungomare Matteotti · Summer beach bars after sunset
- Marina di Pescara · A quieter drink by the yachts
Live music in Pescara
Music under the pines in July, a theatre in the old town, and a football club whose stadium is two streets from the sea.
- Teatro D’Annunzio · Pescara Jazz in July, under the pines
- Teatro Massimo · Theatre and cinema in the centre
- Stadio Adriatico · Pescara Calcio, the Dolphins
Frequently asked questions about Pescara
What is there to see in Pescara?
The top sights in Pescara are D’Annunzio’s Birthplace, Museo delle Genti d’Abruzzo and San Cetteo Cathedral. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Pescara?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Pescara without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Pescara?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Pescara, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The fortress town and its poet.
How do you get to Pescara and get around?
The main ways are Abruzzo Airport, Pescara Centrale and Bus Terminal. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Pescara, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Pescara that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Pescara for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.