Punta Penna

Punta Penna is situated on a crown of enormous rocks that rises vertically on the sea. Stretched out in the middle Adriatic like a spur, it is one of the most beautiful expanses of the 18 km seashore Vasto can be proud of.

Punta Penna delimits with a surface of around 2 sq. km the most southern area of the Reserve of Punta Aderci, descending gently down to the railway station of Vasto Port.

Up high, overlooking the port is the lighthouse with the same name.

Just north to the port, you reach the wonderful dune beach of Punta Penna, a superb beach with soft golden sand, among the few areas of the Abruzzo seashore that has kept its wild aspect.

Punta Penna is the reserve zone of great naturalistic interest. The Dunes are dotted by very rare plants and populated with animals such as the yellow-legged gull, the little gull and the Kentish plover.

The sea is turquoise blue, crystal clear and transparent, with sandy and sloping sea beds, ideal for swimming and aquatic sport activities.

The sunken part of the reef is freckled with shellfish like mussels, clams, naticas, small clams, razor clams, St James’s shells. On the water’s edge it can be found the runner crab and among the cavities formed by the coral seaweeds live different demosponges, stony corals and polyps.

A marine amphitheatre that hosts also numerous bird fauna species: the grey heron, the purple heron, and the little egret, the skylark, the woodchat shrike and the chiffchaff. Among the prey birds, one can easily see the honey buzzard, the western marsh harrier, the Montagu’s harrier and the Eurasian sparrow hawk.

The zone of the “Penna” has also an historical importance. Concurring news from Plinio and Mela believes it to be the seat of the important Frentani city of Buca, succeeded by Pennaluce, during the Middle Ages.

In the territory of D’Erce existed some fortifications that resisted to the raids of Turks and Saracens, part of which is still visible on the ridge of Punta Penna in the area of Colle Martino.

On the windy cliff, at about 30 meters above sea level, next to the lighthouse 73 meters high, a defensive tower stands tall, among the 366 that the Viceroy of Naples had built in between 1563 and 1568 to fight off the raids of the Turks, along with the lovely Romanic little Church of S. Maria di Pennaluce with a low pointed arch and concrete bricks, the renovated heritage of the medieval village of Pennaluce.