Abruzzo's Adriatic capital — D'Annunzio's birthplace, brodetto di pesce, and the longest free beach on Italy's east coast
Pescara is Abruzzo's largest city, stretched along a long sandy Adriatic beach at the mouth of the Aterno-Pescara River. It is best known as the birthplace of Gabriele D'Annunzio (1863–1938) — the flamboyant poet, soldier, and proto-fascist aesthete who is one of the most consequential figures in Italian cultural history. Pescara's food identity is equally strong: brodetto alla pescarese (a gently spiced Adriatic fish stew with saffron and onion, using a minimum of 7 fish species) is one of Italy's greatest lesser-known seafood dishes. The Adriatic fish market is the most important on Italy's…
The site of modern Pescara was the Roman Aternum, an important Adriatic port. The city was merged in 1927 by Mussolini from two distinct municipalities on either bank of the river — Pescara (south) and Castellamare Adriatico (north). D'Annunzio, born in Pescara in 1863, became internationally famous as Italy's greatest living poet before WWI and then led a paramilitary force to seize the city of Fiume (now Rijeka, Croatia) in 1919 — an episode that directly inspired Mussolini's March on Rome and the fascist movement.