[2] It has been supposed, with much probability, to be of Etruscan origin, and a colony from the more celebrated city of the name, now Adria in the Veneto region,[3] though there is no historical evidence of the fact.

[6] The territory of Adria (ager Adrianus), though subsequently included in Picenum, appears to have originally formed a separate and independent district, bounded on the north by the river Vomanus (Vomano), and on the south by the Matrinus (la Piomba); at the mouth of this latter river was a town bearing the name of Matrinum, which served as the port of Adria; the city itself stood on a hill a few miles inland, on the same site still occupied by the modern Atri, a place of some consideration, with the title of a city, and the see of a bishop.

[7] According to the Antonine Itinerary[8] Adria (which may have been the original terminus of the Via Caecilia), was the point of junction of the Via Salaria and Via Valeria, a circumstance which probably contributed to its importance and flourishing condition under the Roman Empire.

Ultimately, in the 6th century, the Lombards succeeded in establishing hegemony over the area, and Atri and other parts of Abruzzo found themselves annexed to the Duchy of Spoleto.

[10] It is now generally admitted that the coins of Adria (with the legend "HAT" which at the time read, like other Osco-Italic languages, from right to left) belong to the city of Picenum, not that of the Veneto; but great difference of opinion has been entertained as to their age.

Close to the lookout over the sea and all of the valleys of the Terre del Cerrano (from Roseto degli Abruzzi up to Silvi Marina), there is a Liberty style fountain, considered the emblem of the Villa Comunale.

Another symbol of the villa, renovated in the 1930s in an Italian garden, is the formaggione (the big cheese), a cylindrically shaped hedge, comprising conifers, with four entrances (located at the cardinal points).