Montefino

Montefino is a small town and predominantly rural comune of the province of Teramo in the Abruzzo region of eastern Italy.

The town is situated on a hill of some 375 metres (1,230 ft) overlooking the Fino valley where olives and grain are the major crops.

Until the 19th century Montefino was called Montesecco (Latin: Mons Siccus) meaning "dry mountain" and referring to a site lacking in springs.

The area around Montefino belonged in antiquity to the territory of the Adriatic Sabini, and later to that of the Roman colonia Hatria Picena, modern Atri.

On the terraces below this developed the later medieval town, with a second castle, the Castello degli Acquaviva, and an eighteenth-century church dedicated to Saint James the Great, the Chiesa di San Giacomo Apostolo, whose fabric includes an external portal of the sixteenth century recovered from an abandoned abbey nearby.