San Giovanni all'Orfento

There are two different paths for reaching the hermitage: the most spectacular is surely that which breaks off to the right of the barrier where you park the car, and after a brief descent into the woods, it goes along halfway over the Orfento Valley with incredible scenery.
In 1284 Pietro da Morrone, already famous for his sanctity and to whom various miracles were attributed retired to this place in the thickness of the beechwood trees of the Maiella hoping to escape the fame and continual visits from pilgrims; he remained here with a very solitary existence, which he had hoped for, until 1293.
The hermitage was constructed from a small cave which opens in the half of a gigantic rocky mass. To reach the entrance it is necessary to go along a long walkway (about 50 meters) which is completely carved into the rock and which looks over the woods underneath without any protection. The last 2 meters of the walkway are not carved like the rest of it, and the visitor must literally rub his body along the ground to reach the entrance of the cave (the difficulty of this is not be underestimated; it is so short that you can't even do it by crawling on your hands and knees, and it is completely exposed to the valley below). It was once believed that this obstruction served to prostrate the visitor at the entrance of this sacred place; recent scholars, however, hypothesize that it was made for safety reasons: one passed over a wooden walkway which could be easily removed in case of danger.
Inside the cave you'll find two small areas and an interesting system of canals dug into the rock to collect rainwater in a cistern that still works.
The return to the car can be done on the other path (slightly shorter but less spectacular) which begins to go up a few meters before reaching a stairway to the entrance of the hermitage.

The hermitage is located within the Orfento Valley Natural Reserve and to visit it you must ask for permission at the park's offices located on Via del Vivaio of Caramanico Terme.
You exit the town and reach the hamlet of Decontra; you then continue along an unpaved road (sometimes in bad condition but the first 6 km are almost always passable) until you reach the barrier closing the street at Piana Grande (about 7.5 km from Decontra).