Gran Sasso d'Italia

[citation needed] The mid- to lower slopes of the Gran Sasso are grazed in spring, summer and autumn by large flocks of sheep guarded by Maremmano-Abruzzese sheepdogs as well as herds of cattle and semi-wild horses.

Campo Imperatore is home to Italy's oldest continuously operating commercial ski area (connected to Fonte Cerreto via cable car).

The laboratory is composed of three large underground chambers, sometimes referred to collectively as the third tunnel, and lies beneath 1,400 metres (4,600 feet) of rock.

credit the opposition created by the tunnel and laboratory construction with galvanizing the Italian environmental movement and leading to the creation of the Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park in 1991.

This is especially true in summer with most Italians preferring beach vacations and foreign visitors more likely to visit the mountains of northern Italy.

Pope John Paul II loved to secretly ski at Gran Sasso where he would retire often and pray at the church of San Pietro della Ienca.

When he died Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, gave the local Abruzzo community some of the late pontiff's blood as a token of the love he had felt for the mountainous area.

[3] The Shrine of Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows at Isola del Gran Sasso d'Italia with average of two million visitors per year is one of the 15 most visited sanctuaries in the world.

[4] Acclaimed international movies shot at Gran Sasso include Jean-Jacques Annaud's The Name of the Rose, Arnold Schwarzenegger's Red Sonja, Ladyhawke, King David, Keoma and The Barbarians.

Panorama of Gran Sasso d'Italia. Monti della Laga is seen in the background.
Monte Prena in the chain of Gran Sasso.
Corno Grande in the chain of Gran Sasso.