Sulmona

Ovid was born here in 43 BC and used the initials SMPE, Sulmo mihi patria est, which the town still carries on its arms. A medieval aqueduct of twenty-one arches runs along one side of Piazza Garibaldi, where a market has been held since the Middle Ages. Confetti, hard sugar-coated almonds, have been made in Sulmona since at least the fifteenth century, and from the nineteenth the town developed the practice of wiring them into flowers, bouquets and figures, which are now sold across Italy for weddings and christenings; a factory museum shows the process. On Easter morning the Madonna che Scappa procession is run across the square.

History

Sulmo was one of the chief towns of the Paeligni, an Italic people, and a tradition mentioned by Ovid and Silius Italicus credited its founding to Solymus, a Phrygian companion of Aeneas. It first appears in history in the Second Punic War, when Hannibal laid waste its territory in 211 BC without attacking the town itself, and Ovid himself called it a small provincial town (Wikipedia, Sulmona).

What to look for

• The aqueduct arches - a medieval arcade along the main square.
• The confetti flowers - sugared almonds wired into bouquets and figures.
• The Ovid connection - the poet's birthplace, marked across the town.
• The Easter procession - the Madonna che Scappa run in the square.

When to go

April to October; the Easter procession is the town's largest event. The confetti museum keeps working hours. Winter is cold at this altitude.

What to expect

The confetti factory museum is a working commercial site. Ovid left nothing physical behind; the connection is commemorative. The town is quiet outside events.

Nearby

Scanno lies south; the Majella park rises east.

Key facts