This weekend is the International Day of the Tourist Guide. This event, now in its 26th edition, is involving qualified tourist guides from all over Italy with the aim to make known  the small hidden treasures of our country. From February 20th to 22nd will be possible to discover villages, museums, monuments and archaeological sites often not well known through free guided tours.

Abruzzo is taking part in this initiative with the opportunity to visit in February on Sunday 22nd two beautiful villages in the provinces of L’Aquila: Castel di Ieri and Castelvecchio Subequeo. The two small towns are located in the Subequana Valley a hilly area, crossed by the river Aterno, in the Sirente-Velino Natural Regional Park. You can also admire beautiful medieval villages perched on the mountains surrounding this lovely Valley .

At Castel di Ieri, you can visit the Italic temple, a place of religious meeting of Peligni Superequani, made between the end of the 2nd century and the beginning of the 1st century b.C. The small town in Abruzzo, with just over 300 inhabitants, hides other interesting places to visit as the mediaevale tower, the city gate and the Church of Santa Croce.

Castelvecchio Subequeo instead invites us to discover the catacomb of Svperaeqvvm. A Gallery dated from 4th century and discovered by chance in July 1943, it is about forty meters long and divided into two arms at right angles in which we find inscriptions, tombs, a swastika and a monogram of Constantine. But this is not the only place of interest in this small town of L’Aquila, indeed worth a visit is the monastery and the church of St. Francis of Assisi, the Museum of Sacred Art and the Church of SS. John the Baptist and Evangelist.

A unique chance, on Sunday February 22nd, to visit two small hidden treasures of Abruzzo!

For further information visit the website of the International Day of the Tourist Guide.