Trabocchi Tour by car: the wooden spiders on the sea

A trabocco, wrote Gabriele d’Annunzio in The Triumph of Death, resembles a «colossal spider»: a machine of wood, poles and ropes that seems «to live a life of its own», bleached white by sun and salt. The trabocchi are the symbol of this coast — old stilt fishing platforms, some now turned into restaurants suspended over the water, others preserved as monuments.

This driving itinerary works its way up the Costa dei Trabocchi at a calm pace, between the old SS16 road and the lanes that drop down to the sea. You start from the Turchino at San Vito Chietino — d’Annunzio’s trabocco — pass Punta Tufano at Rocca San Giovanni and climb to the Abbey of San Giovanni in Venere for the view over the coast.

At Torino di Sangro the stop is the Punta Le Morge trabocco: built in 1918, rebuilt in 2011 and run by the «Lu Travocche» association, it is not a restaurant but a monument-trabocco open to visits, with traditional fishing demonstrations in summer. A few steps away, on the Blue Flag beach, lunch is seafood. You close towards Vasto, between the Cungarelle and the trabocchi of the Punta Aderci reserve.

An easy itinerary, done by car with short walks down to the trabocchi. The coast road is slow and scenic: give yourself time, and book ahead at the trabocco-restaurants.

Good to know

• Book the trabocco-restaurants (Turchino, Punta Tufano, Cungarelle): fixed seafood menus, often fully booked
• The Punta Le Morge trabocco at Torino di Sangro is a monument open to visits, not a restaurant: in summer, tours and fishing demonstrations
• Dinner at sunset on a trabocco is the signature experience — well worth the reservation
• The coast road is slow, and the final metres down to the trabocchi can be unpaved: allow time and wear comfortable shoes
• From May to September many trabocco-restaurants are open; several close in winter

Best time: May to September

How to do it: by car + short walks