Things to Do Today – Parks and Wilderness

Parks and Wilderness Areas

Get on your hiking boots and have a wander through some of the most lovely wilderness areas in northern Europe.

Wilderness around Lake Maggiore

Around and above the Lake there is a wide variety of wilderness areas, natural Parks and spectacular mountain reserves.
Val Grande: once inhabited solely by shepherds, today represents one of the most wild and uncontaminated areas in Italy;

View from Strette del Cas looking over Val Cavr and Corni di Nibbio

http://www.in-valgrande.it

Park Alpe Veglia and Alpe Devero: in the Ossola mountains, between 1700 and 3500 metres, offer spectacular views of majestic mountains, green pastures, and typical mountain lakes.

Alpe Veglia Nature Reserve

http://www.parks.it/indice/PR/index.php?reg=1

Park of the Valle del Ticino an effluent of Lake Maggiore, the Park is the natural habitat of a wide range of birds, reptiles and flora;

Covered Boardwalk through Ticino Nature Reserve

http://www.parks.it/parco.ticino.piemontese/gallery.php?categoria=&page=1

Lake Maggiore Park Authorities oversees four protected areas: Lagoni of Mercurago 470 hectars of morenic hilly countryside with mixed woodland, ponds and swamps and some important archeological remains; Fondo Toce Nature Reserve, 360 hectars with an important reed bed, and swathes of riverside vegetation; the Nature Reserve of Dormelletto, 157 hectars of reed beds sheltering a wide range of fauna; Nature Reserve of Bosco Solivo, 340 hectars in Borgo Ticino, surrounding the Motto Solivo hill.

http://www.parchilagomaggiore.it

Parco dei Lagoni in Oleggio Castello has an interesting selection of aquatic flora as well as remains from the Neolithic period testifying to the existence of a civilization from the 5th century B.C..

Dormello This moraine range dominating the lake gave shelter to a small village called Dormello, now disappeared, whose name originally indicated its present-day chief town, Dormelletto. While downhill, near the 18th century church of Madonna della Motta, only a 1st century AD Roman altarpiece was found, in Dormallo Superiore there is a greater presence of Roman artifacts: another altarpiece, Roman brickwork later used on the walls of "Madonna della Fontana", and a bronze spoon lost in the plain towards the Lagoni Park. Thanks to the "Fountain" the place was considered sacred in pre-Christian times. The wallbuilt altarpiece might refer to such worshipping.

Mini Tour Dormello Lagoni Nature Reserve

Fondotoce Reserve: at the mouth of the river Toce, it is characterised by the lake dwellings extending through swamps and cane thickets, a habitat for unusual species of aquatic fauna in a thick and varied flora. Over 130 species of birds choose this area to set their nests and reproduce;

Fondo Toce Reed Beds (foto Oreste Pastore)

Bosco Tenso Oasis: 22 hectares on the banks of the Toce river at Premosello Chiovenda, a protected area where nature offers a variety of bush plants where birds, foxes, squirrels and deer live.The area, which is a WWF environmental oasis, extends for approximately 23 hectares and is populated mainly by oak, hornbeam, ash, lime and enormous sessile oak trees growing alongside spindle tree bushes, hawthorn, honeysuckle and elder tree. The flora that grows alongside the river is also noteworthy.

Bosco Tenso - foto Oreste Pastore

Tagged: Castello Dal Pozzo, Garden, Lake Maggiore, leisure, Piedmont, Travel, Trekking