On Route 16, 22 km South East of Pescara. A pathetic-looking town and harbour, infested with idlers. On twin beaches, Lido Riccio and Lido Saraceni, hotels, shrubs, roses, beach cabins, drinks stands and pedalos are formed up like defences against a sea-borne invasion. A formerly down-at-heel boatyard builds yachts. The town, unremarkable except for the customary cathedral, palazzo and Aragonese fort, is a shopping centre. (Roman department stores have branches in Adriatic resorts – for some reason people come to the coast to buy new and antique furniture.)

Tosti, adored composer in Victorian Britain (he wrote Adieu and not much else), is honoured in his native Ortona with an August festival called Maggiolata. Hydrofoils run frequently in summer to the Tremiti islands (2 hours). South of town is a  large Canadian military cemetery (Italian campaign of 1943-44).

For railway enthusiasts: Ortona is one end of the principal line of the Abruzzo network which goes via Castel di Sangro to Pescara. Its offshoots have scores of little stations for scores of villages and hamlets and can show railway engineering at its most audacious. As usual in mountainous parts of Italy, station and village may be far apart – for example Scanno is 23 km from its station. These trains hang on by their eyebrows. They scale crags and burrow through spurs and take forever. Country folk walk briskly through tunnels, confident the train will not overtake them. Even a short trip between two wayside halts, from which you can walk back over the hill in little more time than it took the train, shows railway engineering at its most audacious. An especially dramatic section is between Sulmona and Castel di Sangro (90 minutes). Its summit at around 900 m is among the highest of ordinary railroads in Europe.

Detour – Torino di Sangro

On Route 16, 23 km South East of Ortuna. Second World War buffs may know about the Sangro river of bloody memory. Torino, at its mouth, is a shingly mini-resort, generally quiet. A ten-minute walk takes you to the British war cemetery on the hill.