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One region until 1963, Abruzzo and Molise - previously just plain Abruzzi - together make Italy's transition from north to south. Both are sparsely populated mountainous regions prone to earthquakes, and both have always been outside the mainstream of Italian affairs. You could spend a whole and very varied holiday in Abruzzo . Bordered by the Apennines, it holds some of Italy's wildest terrain: silent valleys, vast untamed mountain plains and abandoned hill-villages, as well as some great historic towns, many of them rarely visited by outsiders. But this is only half the story: the Abruzzesi have done much to pull their region out of the poverty trap, developing resorts on the long, sandy Adriatic coastline and exploiting the tourist potential of a large, mountainous national park. Molise is manifestly a part of the south, its countryside gentler than Abruzzo, its mountains less forbidding, and its villages and towns usually modern and functional to withstand the shock of earthquakes. The lasting impression is of new, fast roads snaking across rolling countryside planted with grain, but although you can drive across Molise in less than an hour on the motorway it's not a region you can get the most out of by hurriedly passing through. This is a land which has long experienced peasant hardship; it still has a close affinity to traditional festivals and rituals, and demands time to be understood. Tourism is low-key: tratturi for example - ancient sheep-droving routes 111m wide - are gaining a new life as mountain-bike or horseback riding trails, served by occasional farmhouse guesthouses and riding stables along the way. Other focuses are the seaside town of Termoli; one of Italy's least-visited Roman sites, Saepinum; and the hiking trails in the Matese mountains on the border with Campania. Don't expect to rush through, though; in both regions, getting around on public transport demands patience and the careful studying of bus and train timetables.
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