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Roccaraso - Rivisondoli Loop

Routes

Bike touring routes & trails

Roccaraso - Rivisondoli Loop

Moderate

5.0

(1)

riders

Roccaraso - Rivisondoli Loop

Q: What is the difficulty level and terrain like for cycling the Roccaraso - Rivisondoli Loop?

This loop is classified as moderate for touring cyclists. It covers approximately 15.4 km with about 190 meters of elevation gain, mostly on paved surfaces. While generally accessible, some routes in the broader Roccaraso area can be more demanding, but this specific loop offers a balanced challenge.

01:00

15.4km

190m

Cycling

Cycle the moderate 9.6-mile Roccaraso - Rivisondoli Loop in Majella National Park, enjoying panoramic views and historical sites.

Last updated: February 26, 2026

Waypoints

Start point

Parking

Get Directions

35 m

Roccaraso Town Center

Highlight • Settlement

Roccaraso is a renowned mountain resort in Abruzzo, famous for its ski slopes and for its splendid views of the Maiella Mountains and the peaks of the Marsicani Mountains.

Translated by Google •

Tip by

2.42 km

Sanctuary of Madonna della Portella

Highlight • Religious Site

The hermitage church is located less than two kilometers from the town of Rivisondoli, near the Cinquemiglia plateau.It was probably built in 1589 on a previous building of worship, initially built as a refuge for travelers and before that as a simple votive shrine. The last hermit to live in the building was Fra 'Nicola di Coccia, a peasant from Palena whose real name was Teodoro Di Biase.
Open from June to September; in the remaining periods contact the parish priest of the church of San Nicola di Bari.

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Tip by

3.32 km

Porta Antonetta

Highlight • Historical Site

Porta Antonetta, of fifteenth-century origins, constitutes one of the entrances to the ancient village still visible today. It was located at the base of a square tower, now incorporated into the walls of a more recent building. The door still has stone corbels at the top that once supported a bertesque used in the defense of the access gate. Behind the wide round arch of the door, a barrel vault is set whose curvature is partially altered by the presence of a recently built flat floor.

Translated by Google •

Tip by

4.26 km

Civic Museum

Highlight • Historical Site

The Civic Museum was inaugurated in 2011 with the exhibition "Teofilo Patini - Pack animals, studies and unpublished works". It collects the collections of the previous Nativity Scene Museum made up of artistic nativity scenes, paintings, sculptures, photographs and other works of art. dedicated to the traditional annual representation of the Living Nativity.The structure also hosts temporary exhibitions and cultural initiatives constituting the aggregative center of local culture.

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Tip by

4.39 km

Parish Church of Saint Nicholas of Bari

Highlight • Religious Site

The church, rebuilt in the 20th century after a fire in 1792, has a red brick and white stone facade. The interior has three naves, a domed transept and an apse with an altar in polychrome marble. The bell tower dates back to the 18th century.

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Tip by

4.46 km

Church of Suffrage

Highlight • Religious Site

The church is probably the result of a reconstruction following the earthquake of 1706 on the primitive structures of an existing cult building.The rectangular façade with a tympanumed crown with a central oculus and a small bell tower, is closed laterally by massive cantonal squared stone. The portal is enriched at the top by baroque volutes and by two bas-relief skulls, placed on the architrave, in memory of the function of the building: the cult of the Holy Souls of Purgatory. Above the portal there is a rectangular window also decorated with a baroque gable and a shell motif. The interior has a single rectangular hall covered with a barrel vault with lunettes embellished with gilded stucco frames that form mirrors with a mixtilinear profile. The main altar is made of polychrome marble and surmounted by a niche which houses the statue of the Madonna. The counter-façade space is occupied by a masonry choir decorated with gilded stuccos and supported by two slender Tuscan columns finished in fake marble. A portal surmounted by a skull motif - located to the right of the altar - leads to the small sacristy compartment which has independent access to the outside. The decorative apparatus of the church was enriched during the first half of the 19th century.

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Tip by

7.42 km

Basilica of Santa Maria del Colle

Highlight • Religious Site

The Basilica, the ancient Collegiate, is among the most interesting churches in Abruzzo. It rises where a religious nucleus existed since the 11th century. It was rebuilt in 1466 with a 5-nave configuration after the 1456 earthquake. The variety of shapes, furnishings, materials and structures, which over the centuries have stratified into the building, makes it a museum rich in works of art. It is accessed from the scenic staircase (1580) which goes to the side entrance with a late Romanesque portal (XV century). A Renaissance portal opens on the front facade. The environment features Romanesque-Renaissance architecture, with stone pillars and arches. The 5 large ships are covered with beautiful carved wooden coffered ceilings: the central one and the two intermediates are stuccoed in gold and frame fine canvases. On the left there is the baptistery with baptismal font (XVIII century) in murmuring inlay. Santo di Rocco is responsible for the railing of the Chapel of SS. Sacramento, built between 1699 and 1705 and finished by his nephew in 1717: the most famous piece of the Basilica. On the counter-façade wall is the choir of Bartolomeo Balcone (1619), also the author of the wooden pulpit that wraps one of the pillars of the central ship. All around there are wonderful altars in stone, wood, marble from the XV-XVIII centuries, made by master craftsmen from Pescara. At the end of the right aisle, the seventeenth-century altar of the Madonna del Colle stands out with the polychrome wooden statue of the Madonna (XIII century), a rare example of medieval Abruzzo art.

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Tip by

7.48 km

Church of Jesus and Mary

Highlight • Religious Site

La Chiesa di Gesù e Maria e l’adiacente convento dei frati minori furono costruiti nel 1611 per volere dei pescolani che intendevano ospitare una comunità di frati francescani. La facciata della chiesa, così come si presenta oggi, non corrisponde al progetto originario ma risale al 1855. Il prospetto originario, al quale possiamo risalire dalla pianta prospettica di Pescocostanzo del De Mattheis del 1715, presentava un portico d’ingresso, un’unica finestra centrale e il tetto a falde denunciato all’esterno.Il prospetto ottocentesco è scompartito in due livelli da un’alta cornice marcapiano modanata ed è inquadrato lateralmente da un ordine sovrapposto di paraste tuscaniche. Nella parte inferiore del piano di facciata campeggia al centro il portale in pietra dalle linee tardocinquecentesche, sormontato dallo stemma dell’Ordine francescano e affiancato da finestre con timpano mistilineo che accolgono i monogrammi della Vergine Maria e di S. Bernardino da Siena. Nella parte superiore, coronata da un cornicione modanato in pietra di poco aggettante, è collocata una finestra rettangolare ad edicola con timpano triangolare spezzato e mensole inginocchiate.La chiesa presenta una pianta ad aula unica con pseudo cappelle laterali che accolgono gli altari, inquadrate da un doppio ordine architettonico di paraste ioniche scanalate. In controfacciata è situata una cantoria in muratura con volte a crociera, proveniente - con buona probabilità - dall’ampliamento della navata della chiesa per annessione della struttura dell’antico portico di facciata. Il coro dei frati, soprelevato di poco rispetto al piano dell’aula su una scalinata dal profilo curvilineo, è filtrato dalla presenza dell’altare maggiore, capolavoro dell’architetto bergamasco Cosimo Fanzago, che risente di echi provenienti dall’opera romana del Bernini. L’altare si articola su due livelli sovrapposti: quello basamentale, con i due portali laterali d’ingresso al coro, un paliotto centrale con tabernacolo e una bucatura dal profilo mistilineo che capta la luce della retrostante finestra absidale e sfrutta l’effetto chiaroscurale per risaltare la presenza del tabernacolo; quello superiore, con l’imponente fastigio barocco a colonne aggettanti e timpano semicircolare spezzato che inquadrano la tela de L’apparizione di Gesù e Maria a S. Francesco di Giambattista Gamba. Lo spazio barocco dell’aula, arricchito dall’apparato barocco di stucchi, affreschi e marmi policromi, è ritmato dalla copertura a botte a sesto ribassato che segue il passo dell’ordine architettonico inferiore e delle cappelle laterali.Opera del Fanzago, situato a sinistra della chiesa, il quadriportico è formato, per ciascun lato, da cinque archi a tutto sesto che poggiano su pilastri quadrati con basi e capitelli semplici, posti al di sopra di un parapetto continuo in muratura; al centro del chiostro vi è un pozzo ottagonale. L’ala nord del chiostro presenta al primo piano una loggia ad archetti sostenuti da colonnine, in numero doppio rispetto alle arcate sottostanti.

Tip by

7.75 km

Pescocostanzo Historic Town Center

Highlight • Historical Site

Pescocostanzo is a very cute town worth visiting.

Tip by

7.93 km

Fanzago Palace

Highlight • Historical Site

Il monastero di monache di clausura venne edificato a chiusura dell’attuale piazza Municipio, a partire dal 1626, al posto di un preesistente ospedale annesso alla chiesa di San Nicola. Il progetto originario, opera dell’architetto bergamasco Cosimo Fanzago, non fu mai portato a termine. Dei quattro bracci di fabbrica che avrebbero dovuto circondare un cortile quadrangolare, ne furono realizzati soltanto tre. Dopo il terremoto del 1706 ne rimase solamente uno che oggi, a seguito degli interventi di nuova destinazione d’uso, ospita il Museo del Tombolo.La facciata su piazza Municipio, serrata come di consueto da possenti cantonali in pietra squadrata, è scandita da una teoria di sei nicchie a timpani triangolari alternati, chiusi e spezzati, poste a ritmare il piano di facciata altrimenti privo di aperture data la funzione di clausura dell’edificio. I portali in pietra a tutto sesto, che oggi dialogano maldestramente con le nicchie fanzaghiane, furono aperti nel corso del XIX secolo per ospitare botteghe e locali commerciali al piano terreno. Le nicchie con paraste ribattute lateralmente da volute e mensole inginocchiate che ne accrescono la plasticità scultorea e l’effetto chiaroscurale, costituiscono un episodio chiave nell’opera fanzaghiana e presentano evidenti analogie formali con l’altare maggiore della chiesa conventuale di Gesù e Maria, altra opera dell’architetto bergamesco a Pescocostanzo. Di notevole importanza sono poi le mensole lignee che sorreggono lo sporto di gronda del prospetto principale, raffiguranti un animale chimerico, metà leone e metà aquila, che allude alla custodia e alla perfezione, simbolo dell’originaria destinazione d’uso dell’edificio. Su vico delle Pigne sono ancora visibili i resti del braccio sud-occidentale del monastero costituiti da una muratura in pietrame irregolare ed un portale in pietra con cancellata in ferro battuto che immetteva anticamente al chiostro.L’interno è oggi radicalmente modificato a causa di recenti lavori resisi necessari per insediare nell’edificio alcuni locali di proprietà comunale, una piccola sala conferenze ed il Museo del Tombolo che raccoglie preziosi merletti di proprietà comunale e di privati cittadini pescolani e non (collezione Selene Sconci).

Tip by

15.4 km

End point

Parking

Way Types & Surfaces

Way Types

7.41 km

5.55 km

1.74 km

746 m

Surfaces

11.0 km

4.45 km

Elevation

Nothing selected – click and drag below to see the stats for a specific part of the route.

Highest point (1,380 m)

Lowest point (1,220 m)

Weather

Wednesday 1 July

20°C

13°C

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difficulty level and terrain like for cycling the Roccaraso - Rivisondoli Loop?

This loop is classified as moderate for touring cyclists. It covers approximately 15.4 km with about 190 meters of elevation gain, mostly on paved surfaces. While generally accessible, some routes in the broader Roccaraso area can be more demanding, but this specific loop offers a balanced challenge.

Is the Roccaraso - Rivisondoli Loop suitable for beginners?

Given its moderate difficulty and mostly paved surfaces, the Roccaraso - Rivisondoli Loop is suitable for cyclists with good fitness. For a more relaxed experience, shorter e-bike loops are available in the area, but this specific route offers a good moderate challenge.

Where can I park to access the Roccaraso - Rivisondoli Loop?

While specific parking details for this exact loop are not provided, Roccaraso Town Center is a common starting point for routes in the area and likely offers parking options. It's advisable to check local parking availability upon arrival.

What kind of scenery and viewpoints can I expect along the route?

The route offers picturesque landscapes typical of the Abruzzo Apennines. You can expect to cycle through lush forests and enjoy wide panoramic views, including those of the Aremogna plain and the peaks of Mounts Maiuri and Arazzecca. The area is known for its fresh mountain air and natural beauty.

What historical sites or landmarks can I see on the Roccaraso - Rivisondoli Loop?

While cycling the loop, you'll be near several notable points of interest. These include the Roccaraso Town Center, the Sanctuary of Madonna della Portella, and the Porta Antonetta. Other nearby highlights include the Civic Museum and various historic churches like the Parish Church of Saint Nicholas of Bari.

What is the best time of year to cycle the Roccaraso - Rivisondoli Loop?

The Abruzzo region, being mountainous, is best enjoyed for cycling during the warmer months, typically from late spring through early autumn. This avoids winter snow and ensures more pleasant temperatures for touring bicycle activities. Always check local weather forecasts before your ride.

Are there any permits or fees required to cycle in the Majella National Park area?

The Roccaraso - Rivisondoli Loop is located within the broader Majella National Park area. Generally, there are no specific permits or entrance fees required for cycling on established routes within the park. However, it's always good practice to respect park regulations, stay on marked trails, and be aware of any local rules regarding protected areas.

Is the Roccaraso - Rivisondoli Loop dog-friendly for cyclists?

While specific rules for dogs on this exact cycling loop are not detailed, dogs are generally permitted on trails in the Majella National Park area, often requiring them to be on a leash. It's recommended to keep your dog leashed for their safety and the respect of wildlife and other trail users.

Does the Roccaraso - Rivisondoli Loop connect with other cycling paths?

Yes, sections of this route intersect with several other official trails. You'll find parts of SICAI Ciclo, ABT Tappa 19: Caramanico Terme - Rivisondoli, Il Cammino d'Abruzzo: Tappa 29, and Percorso ciclopedonale Roccaraso - Rivisondoli along the way, offering potential for extended rides.

Are there places to eat or drink along the Roccaraso - Rivisondoli Loop?

The loop passes through or near Roccaraso Town Center and the Pescocostanzo Historic Town Center. Both towns are known for their amenities, so you should find cafes, restaurants, and other services to refuel during or after your ride.

What are the typical weather conditions for cycling this loop?

The Roccaraso area, being in the Apennines, experiences distinct seasons. Summers are generally mild and pleasant for cycling, while winters can be cold with significant snowfall, as it's part of a major ski area. Always check the local forecast for Roccaraso and Rivisondoli before heading out, especially for sudden mountain weather changes.

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Roccaraso - Rivisondoli Loop

Roccaraso Town Center

Sanctuary of Madonna della Portella

Porta Antonetta

Civic Museum

Parish Church of Saint Nicholas of Bari

Church of Suffrage

Basilica of Santa Maria del Colle

Church of Jesus and Mary

Pescocostanzo Historic Town Center

Fanzago Palace

Frequently Asked Questions

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