Nebrodi Park Sicily - Nebrodi National Park Italy - Nebrodi Park itineraries - Lake Biviere Nebrodi Park

The Nebrodi Regional Park, Italy

The Nebrodi Mountains are most extensive park of Sicily, spanning in 85.000 hectares of protected land which extend along the Homonym count located between the Tirreno Sea and the start of the Etna.

The Nebrodi is an island within an island, the scenery changes radically in respect to the typical Sicilian landscape. These soft slopes (maximum height of 1857 meters) are covered by thick vegetation made of tall trees due to higher precipitation levels than the rest of Sicily.

Up to 800 meters, the landscape is characterized by the typical green Mediterranean scenery in which the spurge, myrtle, lentisk, dryer's greenweed, cork and holm oaks predominate. Above the 800 meters and up to 1200-1400 meters one enters the land of oak trees. There are many species present, like the Durmast Oak and European Turkey Oak. Above 1200 meters the splendid beech trees cover the entire Nebrodi crest in an environment of great naturalistic value.

How to get there: those arriving from the Tirrenean Sea Coast may take the trunk road 116 (Cape Orlando - Randazzo) or even trunk road 289 (S. Agata Militello - Bronte) or the numerous small roads that go towards Alcara Li Fusi Longi or Tortorici.

Information:
Parco Regionale dei Nebrodi
info@parcodeinebrodi.it
Visitors center in Alcara Li Fusi - Ph. (+39) 0941.793904
Visitors center in Bronte, Castello Nelson - Ph. (+39) 095.690018
Visitors center in Cesarò - Ph. (+39) 095.7732061
Visitors center in St. Agata Militello – Ph. (+39) 0941.705934

The Nebrodi Park offers many hiking options. The most famous is the itinerary along the dorsal ridge of the Nebrodi which covers the protected area from east to west along 70 kilometers.

A few points of interest:

• Monte Soro It's the highest peak of the Nebrodi. The peak of the luscious green Mount Soro offers an unforgettable vast panorama of the Aeolian Island and the Tirrenica coast. Towards the south-east is the overpowering silhouette of the Aetna, and towards the west is the Madonie mountain chain.
• Lake Biviere Immersed between the beech tree woods, Lake Biviere makes up the most valued humid zone of Sicily, also due to its unique vegetation and animal habitat. During the summer months, the lake water turns red due to micro algae blooms.
• Mangalaviti Woods Is a place of great hypnotic beauty. In the lower altitude one can find ancient wide planes, whereas at high altitudes one can find overpowering beech tree mixed with maples, ash trees, holly, wild apple trees and evergreen yew trees. The woods are reachable from Langi and from Galati Mamertino, thereby offering fascinating hiking options.

Nebrodi Deli traditions

In the Nebrodi villages, the ancient pastoral tradition continues to this day through the production of high quality dairy thanks to the region's rich aromatic pastures. In this region, typical cheese is produced in maintaining an ancient production technique that fortunately continues despite modern production methods. The cheese varieties vary: the curd cheese, ewe cheese, buttermilk curd and provola cheese.

Another delicious typical Nebrodi product are the cold cuts: salami and "capocollo". Which are obtained from varying kinds of pork cuts, from the valuable black swine breed Nero dei Nebrodi.