TOUR PROGRAM

Abruzzi Parks (accommodation for 4 nights)

Day 1
Abruzzo National Park
Parco Nazionale d'Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise, famous in Italy, and all over the world, as a model for nature conservation and environmental safeguard.
The visits to the park are controlled and selected, and many things are being done to make this Park increasingly modern and efficient. The Centers consist of one or more structures like Museums, Faunistic Areas (a "practicing place" where you learn to observe, know, and respect the most beautiful and endangered fauna), and Botanic Gardens.
The Park Authority is providing each town with a thematic center, like the one dedicated to the wolf in Civitella Alfedena or to the bear in Villavallelonga. Once we will enter the park we continue our visit on foot taking part in the guided hikes organized by the Park Authority. Only in this way you will be able to perceive the presence of the animals, to observe the natural environments, and to enjoy the contact with nature.

Day 2
Gran Sasso National Park.
An European Monument to Biodiversity Parco Nazionale del Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga covers an area of 150,000 hectares. It is one of the largest parks in Italy. It offers a number of proposals, itineraries and visits for every season thanks to the richness of its habitats, of its massifs and thanks to the charming historical-architectonical evidences.
The park is made up of three mountain groups: the chain of Gran Sasso d'Italia, the massif of Laga, and Monti Gemelli. Over 2,000 species of plants live in the park territory. The remarkable richness of the vegetation is due to the high altitudes, which almost reach 3,000 meters, and to the different geological substrata of the main massifs. Many animals, birds, big herbivores and other mammals live in this territory: The most interesting species of the Park is the Abruzzo chamois, an animal which we can find only in the Apennines, and which lived completely safe on Gran Sasso until last century.
We will use some of the 80 Itineraries in Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park, to discover the natural and cultural treasures of the Park, the fauna and the flora, along wonderful itineraries on foot, by mountain bike and on horseback.
We will also discover the ancient cultural tradition of the populations living in the park is witnessed by several handicrafts, tasty gastronomical products, and local folkloric expressions which play an important role both from a cultural and a tourist point of view.
It is impossible to mention every peculiarity and typical product of the 44 towns and of the hundreds of little villages scattered throughout the park territory; as far as craftsmanship is concerned, the ceramists of Castelli, the master-saddlers of L'Aquila, the coppersmiths of Tossiccia, the stone-dressers of Amatrice, the coalmen of Arquata del Tronto are the most representative realities.

Day 3
Silente-Velino Natural Park
The middle valley of the Aterno, the Subequana valley, the "Altopiano delle Rocche", and the northern part of Marsica are the four areas involved by Parco Naturale Regionale del Sirente-Velino: a territory rich in history, in valuable historical, architectonic, and archaeological aspects, in unique natural environments, in suggestive Apennine sceneries, and in rare faunal and floral specimens. Each one of the four above-mentioned areas has its own unique features, and this makes Parco del Sirente-Velino an original place.

Day 4
Majella Natural Park
Majella National Park is characterized by a territory dominated of mountains: as a matter of fact, the 55% of it is over the 2,000 meters. It includes widelands with particular wilderness aspects, the rarest and most precious part of the biodiversity national heritage.
At the moment - as far as we know - the Park houses over 78% of the species of mammals (except Cetaceans) living in Abruzzi, and over 45% of the Italian species. Considering the lack of data on some numerous groups like insectivorous species and chiropters, we can state that the Park is a real "hot spot" for biodiversity conservation also in these fields.
The diversity of the environments, the richness of nature, the evidences left by the human presence make Majella the ideal place to go hiking, an activity giving the visitor the opportunity to discover the most concealed aspects of the area.
The itineraries for trekking-lovers are sometimes long and tiring; those mainly developing in the high mountains are less tiring but nevertheless demanding, both for the climatic conditions and the orienteering difficulties. The entrance to the park is free.

Aosta Valley Park & Natural Reserves (accommodation for 4 nights)

Day 5
Gran Paradiso Natural Park
After Abruzzi we will move to northern Italy in Aosta Valley for the second part of tour.
Parco Nazionale del Gran Paradiso was the first national park established in Italy. It includes a large territory of high mountains, from the 800 meters of the bottom of the valleys to the 4,061 meters of the Gran Paradiso peak. Larch and fir woods, wide alpine grasslands, rocks, and glaciers make up an ideal scenery for the life of a rich and various fauna and for a visit leading to the discovery of the wonderful world of the high mountains.
The territory of the Park, between the Piedmont and Aosta Valley regions, extends itself for about 70,000 hectares in a mainly Alpine environment. The mountains of the Gran Paradiso group have been in the past carved and shaped by great glaciers and by streams, which led to the formation of the current valleys. Going up along the slopes the trees are replaced by wide alpine pastures, which are rich in flowers in the late spring. Going higher again the landscape is characterized by rocks and glaciers, up to the highest peaks of the massif reaching the 4000 metres with the Gran Paradiso peak.
There are signaled nature trails and itineraries which, with the help of a brochure and some signals on the ground, give the visitor the opportunity to learn something about the environment and the local realities.

Natural Reserves
Aosta Valley is rich of natural reserves plunged in a typical alpine environment, presenting woods and grasslands, heaps of stones and rocky walls, lakes and wetlands. Our tour will bring us on special itineraries to discover some of these reserves:

Day 6
Marais. Typical fluvial environment, sheltered by the right orographic side of Valle d'Aosta. The dimensions of the area are limited, and it derives from the hydroelectric blocking of a part of the Dora Baltea. The Marais wetland includes a part of the left bank of the river and two small islands covered by woods.

Day 7
Tsatelet. It is a particularly interesting area from a geomorphological and archaeological point of view, with typical sceneries of low mountain slopes with southern exposure. The reserve is formed by a big rocky hillock dominating the Aosta plain and situated at the confluence of the valley of Buthier with the Dora Baltea valley. The morphology, of glacial origins, is due to the action of the glaciers which crossed the two valleys until 10.000 years ago.

Day 8
Stagno di Holey: A wetland of extremely small dimensions and of a high naturalistic importance, given the presence of relict flora and fauna, unique or very rare in Valle d'Aosta.

Day 9
Departure day
Breakfast in our accommodation in Aosta Valley, afterwards indivdiual departure.