Tortoreto (
Teramano: ') is a coastal town and ''
comune
The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...
'' of the
province of Teramo
The Province of Teramo ( it, provincia di Teramo; Abruzzese: ') is a province in the Abruzzo region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Teramo. The province has an area of , a population of 313,029 (2012), and is subdivided into 47 comunes ( i ...
in the
Abruzzo region of Italy.
It has two distinct parts. The old town is on a hill not far from the
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to t ...
. The new part, usually referred to as Tortoreto Lido, is seaside and located next to
SS 16.
Tortoreto can be reached by direct rail service or by flying to the
Pescara airport and then travelling north.
The ''comune'' of
Alba Adriatica was created in 1956 by splitting it off from Tortoreto.
Toponymy
The name of the town is due to the large presence of
turtle doves (''tortore'') during the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
.
Pope Gregory I
Pope Gregory I ( la, Gregorius I; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was the bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 to his death. He is known for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregor ...
noticed in a letter the large amount of these species of birds which used to live in this area. Later on, the town created on the top of the hills after the
barbarian invasions started to be called ''Turturitus'' or ''Turturetum'', and, eventually, the current denomination of ''Tortoreto'' came into common use.
Climate
Education
In Tortoreto there are two state
primary schools
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...
and two state
middle schools, which are overall attended by about 680 students,
as well as a number of state and private child care institutions and nursery schools.
There are also two private
vocational secondary schools.
Economy
During the summer season, the main economic activity is tourism.
Its geographic position, climate, facilities and environmental projects, have all been planned or used to further tourism. Tortoreto has been awarded the
European Blue Flag in 1992 and, then, from 1998 until 2021.
Fishing was a common activity in Tortoreto before tourism and it continues on a smaller scale to the present. Another common activity in the area was farming, which produced substantial amounts of olive oil and wheat. This activity continues today on a smaller scale too.
International relations
Tortoreto is
twinned with:
*
Habay
Habay (; wa, Habâ) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Luxembourg, Belgium.
On 1 January 2007 the municipality, which covers 103.64 km2, had 7,903 inhabitants, giving a population density of 76.3 inhabitants per km2. ...
, Belgium
References
External links
Official website
{{authority control
Cities and towns in Abruzzo
Municipalities of the Province of Teramo