Tortoreto
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| Tortoreto | |
|---|---|
| — Comune — | |
| Comune di Tortoreto | |
  Tortoreto
|
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| Coordinates: 42°48′N 13°55′E / 42.8°N 13.917°ECoordinates: 42°48′N 13°55′E / 42.8°N 13.917°E | |
| Country | Italy |
| Region | Abruzzo |
| Province | Teramo (TE) |
| Frazioni | Cavatassi, Colli, Salino, Terrabianca |
| Area | |
| - Total | 23 km2 (8.9 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 239 m (784 ft) |
| Population (31 December 2001) | |
| - Total | 7,836 |
| - Density | 340.7/km2 (882.4/sq mi) |
| - Demonym | Tortoretani |
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) |
| - Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) |
| Postal code | 64018 |
| Dialing code | 0861 |
| Patron saint | San Nicola di Bari |
| Saint day | 6 December |
| Website | Official website |
Tortoreto is a little town, 7,836 people, on the Adriatic sea in Italy. It can be reached by airplane landing in Pescara airport and then continuing by car for 63 km to north.
[edit] Tourism and fishing
During summer season the main economic activity is tourism whereby Tortoreto is the first location in Abruzzo with regard to number of visitors.
Among its many historical buildings, one of the most visited attractions is the Di Gennaro mansion, famous for hosting one of the most characteristic botanical gardens in Abruzzo.
The geographic position, climate, facilities and environmental projects, all that further tourism. Moreover Tortoreto get rewarded with the blu flag by the Foundation for environmental education between 1998 and 2008.
The area around Tortoreto is famous for its mouth watering dishes, among many others, the Arrosticini ("rustelle" or "arrustelle" in the local dialects) and the pasta e pallottelle. The firsts, are typically made from castrated sheep's meat (mutton), cut in chunks and pierced by a skewer. It is cooked on a brazier with a typically elongated shape, called "canala" as it reminds of a gutter. The second, is a pasta primo with a meatballs tomato sauce. The "Chitarra con le Pallottelle" has been recently object of a dispute between Piedmont and Abruzzo. While Piedmont claims the paternity of the dish as an early XX Century one, third parties studies clearly showed that people from Abruzzo were used to the preparation of the small meatball already in the early XVIII Century. However, a recent study conducted by Dott. Gian Maria Pautasso, famous Italian expert in gastronomic archaeology, has identified evidence of the Northern paternity of this dish in a very ancient culinary book produced in 1344 by a monk from the Abbazia of San Colombano di Bobbio located in the South of Piedmont. Mr. Pautasso explains in a recent book that, "At that time, there were no tomatoes in Europe but, as they were doing in the "brodera" (typical dish made of rice and pork's blood) they used to mix the meatballs with pork's blood”
