Every design for Chieti

Chieti stands on a hill in central-eastern Abruzzo that splits the waters of two rivers, the Pescara to the north and the Alento to the south, with the Adriatic a short way off and the Maiella not far behind. The old town sits on the flat summit, while the modern district of Chieti Scalo spreads below along the Pescara valley, and daily life moves between the two: students heading for the university campus down in Scalo, everyone else climbing back up to the centre.

Few Italian cities go back as far. Its Latin name was Teate, which lives on in teatino, the word for anyone from here, and even in English through the Theatines, a Catholic religious order. The Marrucini made it their chief town before Rome took over, and that past is everywhere on the hill: the Tempietti romani, the Teatro romano di Teate, the Terme Romane - Thermae. The Museo Archeologico Nazionale d'Abruzzo - Villa Frigerj keeps what the ground has given up.

The Teatro romano di Teate is the landmark to have on your shirt: proof that this hilltop has been a city for longer than almost anywhere else in Italy, and that it still is one.