From Campo Imperatore to Fonte Vetica

Campo Imperatore, the "little Tibet" of Abruzzo, a sanctuary for astrophiles from all over the world, with one of the least polluted skies in Europe, is home to one of the most important astronomical observatories in Italy, considered one of the five best places in Italy to experience the emotion of a starry sky and defined by the INAF as "the one at the highest altitude among professional Italian observatories and the one with the darkest and most transparent sky". The Campo Imperatore Plateau is the largest in Italy, a centuries-old place of summer pasture, rich in numerous floristic and faunal peculiarities within the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park and on the edge of historic villages (Castel del Monte (AQ), Santo Stefano di Sessanio (AQ), Rocca Calascio (Aq). On the night of the Full Moon and where deer can really be encountered, you can go up to Fonte Vetica, much loved by astrophiles for the purity of the sky that at the zenith allows the naked eye to see stars of more than half a magnitude above the sixth. It stands on the edge of a pine and fir forest on the slopes of Mount Vado di Siella, Mount Tremoggia and Mount Camicia. There are no artificial lights other than those of the nearby refuge (which are switched off shortly after dusk, however), so the attraction of the spectacle is assured.