Scandinavian snow, Dolomite rock, Mediterranean sun. We are not talking about three different places 2000 km away from one another but we are talking about one single place: the “Gran Sasso” mountain in Abruzzo, central Italy. It is nearly exaggerated in its contrasts, its dimension, its mighty natural forces.
The mountain range of Gran Sasso rises grandiose, a bit out of scale, with about twenty peaks above 2000 metres a.s.l., hit by winds and snow storms for 6 months per year. Here, especially when the Balkan draughts arrive, can snow a lot more than on the Alps, even 80 cm in a single night.
On the canals of Corno Grande (Big Horn), the highest peak of the Apennines with its 2.912 metres a.s.l., the snow lasts until July, even though the only glacier of the range, the Calderone, can be considered extinct.
The Gran Sasso is not only wild peaks and bare rocks but is also plenty of small peculiar villages such as Isola del Gran Sasso, also called “the saying village” for the door and window lintels are carved with wise Latin sayings, Castelli famous for its majolica, Santo Stefano di Sessanio which has gain notoriety for its recent conversion in Albergo Diffuso (diffuse hotel) and then the lonely village of Rocca Calascio with its fortress, a brave sentinel at 1460 metres a.s.l. since the VIII century.
The Gran Sasso is, of course, synonymous of winter sports. Here skiing was born during the Fascism with the first cableway that linked Fonte Cerreto to Campo Imperatore. This big plateau, that opens all of a sudden at an altitude of about 2000 metres a.s.l., is particularly suitable for cross-country skiing and ski excursions. A spectacular white plateau 19 Km long and 4 Km wide that is hard to forget.
The ski resort of Campo Imperatore can easily compete with the ones on the Alps with its 20 Km of pists. The off-pists of Tre Valloni and the wild Valle Fredda (Cold Valley) are very appreciated at top levels.
The ultimate ski lifts are the only modernity permission in a planet called Gran Sasso that seems to be unchangeable, where the building developments aimed to satisfy the ever growing demand and offer of tourist resorts are respectful of both tradition and environment, matching the standards owed to one of the most beautiful and important Natural Parks in Italy.
For the ones interesting in investing in property in Italy, the property market around the Gran Sasso area and in all the Abruzzo region offers great opportunities.
Prices of property in Abruzzo are still surprisingly low, especially in rural areas where is possible to buy a country home or a stone house to be restored with some land for less than €80,000.
But rural areas in Abruzzo are not the only ones offering great investment opportunities, there is plenty of properties to buy at an affordable price by the coast, where with an investment as little as €130,000 is possible to buy a 2 bedroom apartment facing the sea, with the possibility to rent the property as an holiday let and get also a good income to help pay the investment.
