25. San Pietro della Ienca – L’ Aquila

Last stage, an inseparable combination of nature and spirituality
San Pietro della Ienca is a small village at the foot of the Gran Sasso d'Italia; once the present structures were used by the shepherds of Camarda, today they have been restructured for the purpose of tourist use. The medieval church houses the small sanctuary, the first in Europe
dedicated to St. John Paul II who came here several times to visit.

From San Pietro the route descends quickly towards the valley below crossed by the Raiale river, which further downstream will provide a splendid setting to the shrine of the Madonna d'Appari of Paganica (AQ) declared a national monument in 1902. Go up the stream for a short distance and immediately after passing the Masseria Cappelli and its mill, partially restored, leave the valley to climb to the west on the plateau that will reveal
once again the magnificent mountain contour that overlooks the Aquila basin with the Gran Sasso massif behind the walker and the chain of Mount Ocre - Monte Cagno - Sirente directly to his sight.
Once past the plateaus dedicated to pasture and to residual crops, we descend into the small village of Collebrincioni, and from here, through a splendid valley, we descend towards the pinewood and the convent of San Giuliano. Going down you come to the small church of the
"Madonna and Fore" afternoon destination of the Aquila area and meeting place and prayer, as usual, on Palm Sunday. At the end of the path you enter the city and through the historical center you reach the Basilica of Collemaggio, the last destination of the Natural Path of the
Parks.

The stage in crumbs
From San Pietro della Ienca we descend towards the torrent Raiale and climb it up to overcome the "Masseria Cappelli" and then bend to the west and go up to the plateaus overlooking L'Aquila; from here downhill you first reach the small village of Collebrincioni, and then descend towards the Convent of San Giuliano through the homonymous pinewood, unfortunately partially destroyed by a fire in the years before, and you reach L'Aquila. The last urban part of the route, through the historical center tormented by the 2009 earthquake, leads us to the Basilica of
Collemaggio.

Journey between Nature and Spirituality
The route offers marvelous scenery with the peaks next to the Aquila basin crossed by the Arno, first of all the Gran Sasso (2912m), Monte Ocre and Monte Cagno, and those observable in the distance, especially when the gaze points to the south with the Sirente, to the southwest and the
Majella to the southeast. So much naturalistic beauty has certainly been an inspiration in the construction of the villages and places of worship high even in a national monument such as the cited church of the Madonna d'Appari (Paganica) and the Basilica of Collemaggio (L'Aquila). A
special mention deserves the latter, which was built at the behest of Pietro dal Morrone, the hermit who will be crowned here in 1294 with the name Celestino V and whom Dante cites in the Divine Comedy as "the one who for the viltadae I decline".

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