I am a 3rd year undergrad with a major in history, and would like to eventually pursue a PhD, perhaps in this particular area, as my grandparents were immigrants from this region. What is the state of research of this region in the Middle Ages? My gut feeling is that it's a relatively untouched subject, and that only makes me want to explore it even more.
Thanks!
There's actually quite a bit out there. Most of the scholarship is in Italian and a bit in French (you'll need to learn both languages in addition to Latin if you go to grad school, though). If you search for Abruzzo in the International Medieval Bibliography, you get 210 hits, and that just covers the articles. In particular, the region was heavily studied by scholars interested in the development of the incastellamento movement. Check out Toubert who looked at the movement more generally in central Italy.