The Portone Panzotto is certainly one of the oldest and most characteristic places in Vasto. The alley which, from the center of the medieval district of Santa Maria, passing under some private houses, emerges at the beginning of the Loggia Amblingh.
It is unclear where its name comes from. The historian Luigi Marchesani, in the mid-nineteenth century, traced it back to the presence of an ancient family, the Panzas, of which the main exponent was Marco Aurelio Panza, mayor of Vasto in 1615.
At the beginning of the century, the Carbonari from Vasto had settled in this area and, under the name of Istoniesi Philanthropists, had set up their headquarters, called “sale” at the Portone di Panzotte.
Today the street that takes its name from the ancient carbonara sale is one of the most immediate access routes to the medieval district of Santa Maria, made up of narrow streets and houses leaning against each other according to an urban organization that dates back to the Norman period and which does not has never been modified.
