Vasto: Guide, Hotels, Map & Photos
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EUR 40 - 110 Hotel Rio
 Hotel Rio is located right by the beach in Vasto Marina. It has a large sea-view terrace and offers free parking and free beach service.
Hotel Rio&ac… MoreEUR 60 - 120 Locanda Dei Baroni
 Locanda dei Baroni offers 10 charmingly decorated rooms in Vasto´s old town. You will have free internet connection in your room. Free parking i… MoreEUR 40 - 120 Park Hotel Resort
 Set on the Bay of Vasto, Park Hotel Resort is surrounded by its own private gardens. Each of the comfortable guest rooms offers a private balcony.
T… MoreEUR 55 - 213 Hotel Principe Residence
 Just a few steps from the private beach at Vasto Marina, Hotel Principe Residence features an outdoor pool with jacuzzi and sun loungers. It offers fr… MoreEUR 60 - 145 Hotel Excelsior
 This elegant and modern hotel, ideally located along the coast of Vasto Marina, offers direct access to the beach, solarium and swimming pool and a ch… MoreEUR 55 - 180 Hotel Dei Sette
 Choose from rooms or self-catering apartments at Hotel dei Sette, which offers completely renovated accommodation right in Vasto´s historic cent… MoreEUR 55 - 210 Hotel Europa
 Hotel Europa is located in the centre of Vasto Marina and offers frontal views of the Gulf of Vasto. All rooms are equipped with LCD TV with SKY chann… MoreEUR 45 - 110 Hotel Adriatico
 Just 150 metres from its own private beach, Adriatico is in Vasto Marina, 10 minutes from Vasto Station via free shuttle bus. It offers free parking a… More | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Vasto: Guide
Vasto (Greek language|Greek: ; Latin: Histonium, Istonium, and Histonios; formerly also, Guastaymonis, Il Vasto, and Il Vasto d'Ammone) is a town on the Adriatic coast of the Province of Chieti in southern Abruzzo, Italy. The population is approximately 35,000.
History
According to tradition, the town was founded by Diomedes, the Greek hero . The earliest archaeological relics date to 1300 BC, evidence of the first settlements.
Histonium was one of the chief towns of the Plin. iii. 12. s. 17; Rome in the temple of Itin. Ant. p. 314; Tabula Peutingeriana|Tab. Peut.), and it probably never ceased to exist on its present site, though ravaged successively by the Goths, the Lombards, the Franks, and the Arabs. Some local writers have referred to Histonium the strange passage of Strabo (vi. p. 242), in which he speaks of a place called Ortonium (as the name stands in the manuscripts) as the resort of pirates of a very wild and uncivilised character. The passage is equally inapplicable to Histonium and to Ortona, both of which names naturally suggest themselves; and Kramer is disposed to reject it altogether as spurious. (Kramer, ad loc.)
Histonium has no natural port, but a mere roadstead; and it is not improbable that in the days of its prosperity it had a dependent port at the Punta della Penna, where there is good anchorage, and where Roman remains have also been found, which have been regarded, but probably erroneously, as those of Buca. The inscriptions published by a local antiquarian, as found on the same spot, are in all probability spurious. (See Mommsen, lnscr. Regn. Neap. p. 274, App. p. 30; who has collected and published all the genuine inscriptions found at Histonium.)
Post-Classical
After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the city fell to the Lombards and, finally, to the Franks. In circa 1076, Histonium was renamed Guastaymonis, or the Waste of Aimone (Italian language|Italian: Il Vasto d'Ammone), following raids, hence its current name.
In the 15th century the city’s urban structure was transformed by the condottiero Giacomo Caldora, who had become its lord. The Caldoras built new city walls still seen today: Torre Bassano in Piazza Rossetti, Torre Diomede in Vico Storto del Passero, Torre Diamante in Piazza Verdi and Porta Catena, with Castello Caldoresco as its primary defensive outpost.
Under the Spain|Spanish rule of southern Italy, Vasto became fief of the Marquises of d'Avalos; in the reign of Cesare Michelangelo (marquis from 1697 to 1729), Vasto reached its zenith.
Only superficially shaken by revolutionary events in 1799 (a short-lived Republic of Vasto was immediately overthrown by the sanfedista, or loyalists), the city's history was reflected in the nation's throughout the Restoration to the Unity of Italy when a liberal elite governed.
In the age of Giovanni Giolitti, Vasto changed its architectural and urban features. The historical centre was redrawn and the foundations were set for drastic alterations during 1920s and 1930s.
Despite a devastating landslide (1956) that dragged a significant part of the eastern ridge - now Via Adriatica - into the gorge below, the years following World War II witnessed industrial, urban, parties and socio-cultural development. The city also discovered its tourist vocation: besides the progressive development of its beaches, Roman-era thermal baths, mosaics, cisterns and remains of an amphitheatre were found and restored.
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External links
This "Travel Guide" section is drawn from the Wikipedia article "Vasto". We hope you will edit and improve it. It is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.