Abruzzo Escape - Storyteller & Heritage Expert

Vincenzo de Pompeis is no ordinary tour leader; rather, he is primarily a storyteller. Abruzzo is part of his heritage: his father established the Pescara Museum for the People, and Vincenzo later managed the Ceramics Museums in Castelli, Pescara, and Loreto Aprutino. From a young age, he studied the disciplines that were the family’s activities: art, history, anthropology and archaeology.

Then there is the science. His degree in natural history, with a thesis on international wildlife filmmaking that sees him move to Bristol, home turf of the BBC’s own documentary makers (Sir David Attenborough among them), means he does not just point at a hilltop town and admire the view. He will tell you why it is there: the geology under your feet, the wildlife in the hills, the vegetation before your eyes, the dig sites hiding beneath the vines. For Vincenzo, a landscape is never just scenery; it is evidence.

His ability to select suitable landscapes has been sought after well beyond Abruzzo. When the renowned British landscape photographer Michael Kenna came to the region to photograph it for his highly praised monograph Abruzzo, Vincenzo showed him around its more hidden areas. He also wrote the book’s introduction, setting Kenna’s work in the context of Abruzzo’s long tradition of landscape painting by great artists.

If you add up the years spent at British and Italian television companies, as well as curating art exhibitions for the public, you get a populariser who is inevitably going to perform.

He is funny and truly enthusiastic about his own region.

Spending a day with Vincenzo means that Abruzzo stops being just a background. He shows the full story, not just one part: land, history, people, and wildlife all matter equally, and he tells it the way the region deserves.

With this vision, he will take you on a journey through time, starting by introducing you to the soul of Abruzzo’s historic houses.