Penne

Penne has 12,717 inhabitants between the valleys of the Tavo and the Fino, and it was the capital of the Vestini: the name comes from pinna, the summit. The town sits on four hills, the Sacro, the Romano, the one of the Castle and the one of the Cappuccio, and on the coat of arms there are four towers with two wings beside them — a play on the name, because penne are also the feathers of birds. Here people have always built in bare brick, and for that they call it the town of brick.

In 1837 the Bourbon government took away its rank as district capital as a punishment: there had been risings, and eight of the insurgents were shot at Teramo; Penne raised a monument to them in the square. An Allied bombing in 1944 destroyed its theatre and gutted the cathedral, which was later rebuilt. Since 1959 the town has had the Brioni works, the tailoring house that dressed Clark Gable and Kennedy, and since 1985 its school of high tailoring as well: more than two hundred people work on a single suit.