Punta Ferruccio hides in plain sight, tucked between Ortona's port and the more famous trabocco-lined stretches to the south. You navigate a steep footpath, handholds worn smooth by years of use, and emerge onto a secluded pocket beach where smooth stones click underfoot. The cove's walls shelter you from wind, and the water is so clear you can watch damselfish dart between rocks twenty feet down. A trabocco perches above, its wooden beams gray with age and salt, nets hanging idle until evening when fishermen return.
“It pairs dramatic Trabocchi Coast scenery with genuine seclusion, hidden from the well-trodden tourism circuit by a steep scramble and lack of signage.”
Credit: UnsplashTropical island lagoon from above
You swim in water that stays cool even in July, fed by deep currents that keep it turquoise and bracingly fresh. Snorkelers find small caves in the cliff base, home to octopus and schools of silver bream. The beach itself is narrow—fifteen metres at most—but the intimacy is the appeal. Couples claim flat rocks for sunbathing; friends spread towels on the few sandy patches and pass around thermoses of iced tea.
Above, the coastal highway hums faintly, but down here the loudest sounds are wave-slap and gull cry. A small trattoria operates in the summer months, serving grilled triglie and chilled vermentino at plastic tables wedged into the cliff. By late afternoon, when the sun angles west, the cove glows amber and the trabocco's shadow stretches across the water like a sundial. You'll climb back up the path tired, salted, and utterly satisfied.
