Every design for Vasto

Palazzo D'Avalos tells you who made Vasto what it became: in the seventeenth century the D'Avalos family made the town the centre of their lands, and soon afterwards it was raised to the rank of city. Before them the condottiero Giacomo Caldora had rebuilt it as a stronghold, and the Castello Caldoresco still stands in the old town.

Vasto is one of the few towns whose name traditionally takes an article, Il Vasto, and it comes from the Lombard guasto, a district; in the Middle Ages it was known as the Waste of Aimone. Its Roman forerunner, Histonium, left a theatre, baths and mosaics, and legend says the Greek hero Diomedes founded it. The old centre stands on a promontory with a view over most of the coast, and below it the Gulf of Vasto is the only inlet on the Adriatic between the gulfs of Ancona and Manfredonia.

Seen from the harbour at Punta Penna, the old town high on its headland is the sign that you are back.