The Amblingh Verandah

The Amblingh Verandah opens out on the eastern promenade alongside the old district, starting from the gardens of the d’Avalos Palace. It is a wonderful balcony suspended vertically among the bricks full of the city’s history, looking out over the groves of olives, orange trees and orchards descending to the sea below. From here, in one glimpse, one can admire the wonderful golden gulf of Vasto, the hills of the Molise nearby, the layers of the Gargano Mountain and the Tremiti Islands.
The lodge takes its name after the Austrian Guglielmo Amblingh from Graz, secretary of Cesare Michelangelo d'Avalos, who lived in Vasto at the beginning of the 18^th century.
For years, the high houses and the narrow alleys around the Lodge hosted fishermen, porters, marquis squire descendants or of horse guardians, committed in coastal reconnaissance watching out for Turkish ships: this is in the district of Santa Maria which is a good representative of the popular spirit of Vasto.
Continuing along the promenade, we reach high house of Gabriele Rossetti, seat of one of the Municipal Libraries. Further on around the walls-house of the Amblingh Verandah, we can find the only urban medieval gate left in the city, Porta Santa Maria, also called “Porta Catena”, with a lancet arch surmounted by a lovely little lodge (loggetta). On the southern top, on the highest point of the Lodge, two big Roman cisterns can be found still undamaged, evidence of the abundance of water once available to Vasto inhabitants, who were real masters in hydraulic works.