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.
At the beginning of the century, the Carbonari of Vasto settled in this area and, under the name Philanthropists of Histonium, established their headquarters—known as a vendita—near the Portone di Panzotte. Today, the street named after that old Carbonari meeting place is one of the most direct access routes to the medieval district of Santa Maria, a neighborhood of narrow streets and tightly packed houses, laid out during the Norman period and never altered since.