Abruzo L'ABATINA Di Rosello & Rio Verde Cascad!

The mountain village of Quadri is the starting point for an outing by mountain bike of great naturalistic interest. Ouarin lies a few kilometres beyond Villa Santa Maria olf the Val di Sangro undivided highway which goes up the Sangro Hrv- er Valley from the Adriatic coast to Castel cli Sangro. The bike route leaves lrom the site where archaeological dig- girrgs to uncover the remains of the ancient town of Trebu la have been going on, and are continuing still, in an area of Ouadri very near the village soccer field, which lies 2 km outside the existing village itself. The first leg of the route carries 1 km from the starting point in the direction of Castel di Sangre to a fork in the road where the cyclist branches left for Borrello. About 5 km of gently uphill pedalling brings the cyclist to the edge of the village where there is a fork in the road near a fountain in- dicated as having been erected in 1919.

Here the cyclist branches off toward Roselle. The sign for Flio Verde Cascade appears on the left at a point i.5 km along the Roselle road. The biker fellows the indications on the sign for reaching the cascade, cycles a few hundred metres along a stony road and then turns right, coming first to a picnic area located on the banks ofthe Flio Verde River, cycles across a small wooden bridge and than UD to the nearby observation platform set above the cascade · a window on the world of the whole Sangre River Valley and all its hamlets, _ T0 get instead {U thfi OUSENHUOD plllm f!'0lTl which {0 MQW U18 CBSCBUB itself. the CYCHSI 90es back the few hundred metres to the fork in the road, cycles along the road that slopes downward, alights and walks down the steep but solid series of steps which ends in frotnt Of lhtl impressive, impassable cascade and its perpetual waters rushing down flvmlfl W9 5 Bf 200 FT!. Flemountirlg, the cyclist sets out this time for Abetina di Borféllil. CYUIWQ bail toward Rossello and turning left according to the road sign, The cycling is gently uplntm over the narrow road's payed surface; at each of two forks in the road the route is to  right. Pastures give way to woods that become increasingly dense, forest at first all of beech, then beech and white fir and finally_ near to Pescopennataro, after a short down- hill stretch of road, white fir only - impressive trees as rnuch as 50 m tail and more and with diameters as much as 3 mg- tres broad, The mountain biker should consider dismounting and taking the opportunity of leaving the road and going amongst the conifers to experience scenery like that ofthe great forests of northern Europe. The blossoming of flower- ing plants, an ongoing process from the beginning of spring,

along with all the other varieties of flora present make these woods a botanist's veritable paradise. Likewise, the many birds of prey like goshawks, sparrow hawks, owls and tawny owls and smaller birds like thrushes, stock doves, chaffinches, tits and bullfinches are a ioy not only to ornithologists but to all nature lovers alike.

A very few kilometres from Borrello another fir woods ~ one that covers till hectares — constituting Rosello Nature Oasis has been instituted through WWF initiative lor the sale- guarding ol these extremely lovely forests of lir trees that have been subiected to indis- criminate cutting of timber in the past and that, while common in the Alps, in the central Apennines are located exclusively in this area of the middle Sangro River Valley on the border between Abruzzo and Molise.