How to get To and From Casa La Rocca A. Pescara Airport From the Airport to the A25 Motorway 1. Drive through the exit barrier on your right as you leave the terminal building and find yourself on a roundabout. 2. Take the first (right) exit and follow signs for ‘Roma’ and ‘Autostrada’. The road bends to the left and runs alongside the airfield for a bit. 3. (The entrance to the Auchan supermarket is also off the roundabout outside the airport. It’s convenient if you need to stock up.) 4. Follow occasional signs for ‘Roma’ and in about 2 km you will pass Leroy Merlin on your left and then arrive at the ‘Obi’ roundabout. Obi is another big warehouse store on your left. The ‘Abruzzo Centre’ shopping mall is in front of you to the right. There can be quite a lot of cars. 5. Take the first right and, following signs for ‘Roma’, go up a ramp and over the motorway. 6. There is a roundabout on the other side. Go almost all the way around it before taking the slip road onto the motorway - still signposted ‘Roma’. (When going to the airport from Casa La Rocca this junction is signposted ‘Sambuceto’ on the motorway.) 7. This is the old motorway and is free. Follow it for about 10km until the way to ‘Roma’ forks off to the right. Watch out as you then have to give way quickly to traffic coming from the left 8. After one km you arrive at the ticket barriers for the next bit of motorway. Life is easier if you go through the left hand barrier as you are then lined up for the ‘Roma’ slip road. Take a ticket and join the A25 motorway headed for ‘Roma’. From the A25 Motorway to Sulmona (Tamoil Garage) 9. After about 40km along the A25 take the exit for ‘Pratola P’ and ‘Sulmona’. Pay your toll at the barrier (which should be about €3.50) and pass through. 10. Turn right and then almost immediately left, following signs for Sulmona, Roccaraso and Napoli. Keep left again in 200m and go down the hill passing beneath the motorway. 11. Continue ahead at a roundabout, following signs for Sulmona and Roccaraso, and then pass a Carrefour supermarket on your right. In another 500m you will reach the junction (slip roads) with the S.S. 17. Follow signs on the right for Sulmona, Roccaraso and Napoli and join the S.S. 17. 12. In about 2.5km the Sulmona by-pass begins. Stay on the by-pass following signs for ‘Rocarasso’ and ‘Napoli’. There are several exits / junctions of roads signposted for the centre of Sulmona where you just keep straight on. 13. The Sulmona by-pass is about 6km long. The last road into Sulmona is just past the turning on the left for the sports centre, signposted ‘impianti sportivo’ with some olympic rings. 14. 2km past the last turning for Sulmona you will see the Tamoil garage on the left. Slow down as you pass the garage and begin to indicate to turn right. The turnoff for Casa la Rocca is in only another 100m and not very noticeable. The small blue sign is for ‘Val Pescara’ and is on the far side of the turning – so, therefore, turn just before the sign. From the Tamoil Garage to Casa La Rocca 15. Go down the little ramp from the S.S. 17 and turn right. Follow the road round to the left past some houses and then down to the right over the stream and up the other side to a ‘stop’ sign and cross roads. 16. Go over the cross roads and straight on for 200m to another ‘stop’ sign at a T junction. Spot the sign for ‘Contrada Casa La Rocca’ 17. Turn left, pass a house on the right, wiggle through the trees and then turn right down the unsealed drive to Casa La Rocca. There is a lamp post opposite the end of the drive and a little tiled shelter for the gas meters on the right which is a good thing to look out for. B. Rome Airports – Ciampino and Fiumicino From Ciampino Airport to the A24 Motorway 1. Most hire car desks are in a new building near car park 8. It takes about 5 minutes to walk on an intermittent path or there is a shuttle minibus from near the Terravision bus stop. 2. Leave the airport and turn immediately right at the roundabout towards Rome. This is the S.S. 7, the ‘Via Appia Nuova’. Beware the alarmingly short slip road – if necessary use the hard shoulder to pick up speed or (worse) give way and wait for a gap in the fast traffic. 3. Very soon, in about a kilometre, filter right and join the GRA (Rome’s orbital motorway) following signs for L’Aquila / Pescara / Teramo. You are travelling anti-clockwise on the GRA. 4. Follow the GRA for about 10km until you reach junction 14 for the A24 motorway, and filtering right, follow signs for L’Aquila / Pescara / Teramo. From Fiumicino Airport to the A24 Motorway 1. Leave the airport and head down the A91 motorway towards Rome and the GRA (Rome’s orbital motorway). Reach the interchange with the GRA after about 9km. 2. Filter right and join the GRA following signs for Napoli and L’Aquila / Pescara / Teramo. You are travelling anti-clockwise on the GRA. 3. Follow the GRA for about 22km until you reach junction 14 for the A24 motorway, and filtering right, follow signs for L’Aquila / Pescara / Teramo. From the GRA / A24 junction to Cocullo 4. Head off east on the A24 towards the mountains. In about 5 kilometers, you will need to pick up a ticket for the paying section. 5. Stay on the A24 for about 65km until you reach the point where it splits in two – the A24 continues towards L’Aquila and Teramo but you filter right to join the A25 for Pescara. 6. Stay on the A25 for about 50km until you pass through a 5km tunnel and emerge at the western side of the Sulmona valley. Take the motorway exit straight after the tunnel for Cocullo, paying about 12€ at the toll gate. From Cocullo to Casa La Rocca 7. Turn left at the first junction after descending from the motorway. Follow signs for the village of Anversa Degli Abruzzi, which you enter after about 3km. Turn left at the hairpin junction in the village and leave on the S.S. 479 following signs for Sulmona / Bugnara / Introdaqua. 8. Wind along this road for about 10km, passing turnoffs for the village of Bugnara on the right and then a turn on the right for Introdaqua. Now for the tricky bit - at the second turn on the right for Introdaqua, the road bends sharply to the left and descends towards Sulmona (which is about 3 km further on). At this point you go straight ahead, effectively turning right, onto Via Mastroiacovo. There is a sign for Mastroiacovo / Pettorano. 9. In about 2km reach the cross roads in Mastroiacovo. (Pettorano is sign posted to the right.) Go straight over and after 100m cross the railway tracks. Ignore the sign for Contrada Casa La Rocca immediately after the tracks. Instead, 200m beyond the tracks, turn right onto Via Albanese. After about 500m this becomes Contrada Casa La Rocca, passes an old house on the right and wiggles through some trees. The unsealed driveway to Casa La Rocca is on the right when the wiggle and trees finish. Look out for the little tiled shelter on the right housing our gas meters. There is also a lamppost opposite the end of the drive. An alternative way from the A25 via the Sulmona bypass (S.S. 17) 1. Follow up to step 6 above but do not leave the A25 at the Cocullo junction. Instead continue for another 15km and take the next exit for ‘Pratola P / Sulmona’. The toll will be about 14€. 2. After the toll follow steps 10 to 17 above as if you were coming from Pescara. (A tip for the return journey to Ciampino You pick up signs for the airports (aeroporti) soon after passing through the giant toll gate at the Rome end of the A24. Follow them faithfully – they will take you back the way you came via the GRA. Make sure you take the exit for Ciampino airport and not Ciampino itself which is the exit before the airport. Easily done. When you do exit the GRA (Via Appia Nuova) you have to straight away cut right across to the left lane in order to double back towards the airport. Be prepared and do it quick.) .