Italy's wild side: these 7 national parks are true natural wonders

Massive impression: the Gran Paradiso.
^{Photo: Marek Piwnicki_/ Pexels.com}

Italy has 25 national parks. Most travellers don't know a single one of them.

This is not due to a lack of quality, but to the competition: those who choose between Cinque Terre, Amalfi Coast and Tuscany rarely thinks of travelling to a mountain park in the south or spending days hiking through the forests of Abruzzo. Yet it is precisely there that Italy shows a side that has little to do with the usual image of the country - rough, quiet, in parts downright forbidding. Seven parks that are well worth a visit.

1st Gran Paradiso National Park in Valle d'Aosta and Piedmont

Italy's oldest national park is located in the north-west, high alpine, quiet and largely unspoilt. Ibex can be seen up close here, the hiking trails lead through serious mountain landscapes. No show park, but mountain character.

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2nd Stelvio Pass / Silfserjoch in South Tyrol

Glaciers, hairpin bends, rugged heights. The pass road is one of the most spectacular in Europe, the park behind it one of the largest in the Alps. If you want to experience high mountains in all their splendour, this is the place to be.

3rd Belluno Dolomites National Park

What distinguishes this park from other Dolomite parks is not the scenery, but what grows here. Botanists have been coming here since the 17th century - the southern part of the park was less damaged by the ice ages than the rest of the Alps, which is why plant species that have long since disappeared elsewhere have survived. Around 1400 vascular plants live here, a quarter of the entire Italian flora on 31,000 hectares. There are also over 3,000 chamois, 115 bird species, rare butterflies and insect species in the karst pits that are found nowhere else in the world. There are hardly any roads or inhabited areas. If you have patience, you will see a lot - if you don't, you will see rocks.

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4th Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park

Dense forests, remote mountain villages, Marsican brown bears, wolves and chamois. One of the most unspoilt landscapes in the country, where animals still live in significant numbers. If you get up early and are lucky, you will see more here than on any organised safari.

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5th Cilento National Park, Vallo di Diano and Alburni in Campania

Hills, forests and mountains meet one of the most beautiful coasts in Campania. The park is little-known and correspondingly quiet - ideal for anyone who wants to combine hiking and swimming without having to follow guidebook routes.

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6. Pollino National Park in Basilicata and Calabria

Italy's largest national park looks like a forgotten region in many parts - rugged mountains, deep gorges, fast rivers, hardly any tourism. The park's landmark is the snakeskin pine, an ancient tree that grows in the rock faces and looks as if it has always been there. Rough and expansive, not for people who need a programme.

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7. the Gargano National Park in Apulia

The Gargano is the spur of the Italian boot, a mountain range that juts out into the Adriatic Sea and has little to do with the flat Apulia landscape around it. The coast drops away steeply, the water below is clear and cold, the rocks gleam white. Inland lies the Foresta Umbra, an ancient beech forest that stretches over hills and is so cool and dark in summer that you forget you are in southern Italy. If you want both in one day - forest and sea, tranquillity and coast - this is one of the rarer parks in Europe that actually delivers.

Click here for the national parks

• Gran Paradiso National Park
• Stelvio National Park
• Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park
• Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park
• Cilento National Park, Vallo di Diano and Alburni
• Pollino National Park
• Gargano National Park

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