NATIONAL PARKS OF ITALY

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SUMMARY:
Visit the natural wonders of Italy and some of the most inaccessible places where nature still reigns. Look at the flora and fauna close up.
Parks: D’Abruzzo, Stelvio, Gran Paradiso, Circeo, Calabria, Dolomiti Bellunesi, Delta Padano, Arcipelago Toscano, Gargano.

• From Giorgio Oldani, GOE
DOCUMENTARY, 11 x 1/2 hr, 2004

DVD SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Available in English & Italian
• Available in Hi Def

DETAILED SYNOPSIS:

PARCO NAZIONALE D'ABRUZZO
Summer 26'34"
Winter 24'19"
The Apennines, the spinal cord of Italy, were once home to a countless number of plant and animal species. Today, these species and the ecosytems that they go to make up are housed and protected by the Abruzzo National Park.
The lime-rich soil is ideal for the black pines, whose ripe cones provide the crossbill with the nourishing seeds it feeds on. Two thirds of the Abruzzo Park are covered with broadleaf trees, beeches above all, to form a dense but highly productive forest, in which migrant hoopoes from Africa nest. The Park contains around 35 wolves, now totally protected, with a strong probability of increasing their numbers. Another noteworthy mammal in the Park – which, together with the chamois, was the reason for its establishment – is the brown bear which, in Italy, is found only here in Abruzzo – with a population in the region of a hundred – and in Trentino.

PARCO NAZIONALE DELLO STELVIO
Summer 27'37"
Winter 26'15"
The Stelvio is the largest of Italy's national parks. Created in 1934, and with the addition of new areas at different times, today it covers a total area of 137,000 hectares. At its highest points, the Park plays host to ibex and as many as 5,000 chamois. Its alpine meadows are the ideal habitat for the marmot, which at times has to share the territory with large herbivorous mammals, together with one domestic beast, the cow. In the valleys hollowed out in the distant past by ice flows, the forest has taken over. Where thousands of years ago chamois searched for food among the rocks, red deer now graze. In the Stelvio, their population has reached around 1,500.
Winter in Stelvio National Park forces the chamois down into the lower valleys. The herds, made up of males, females and young, migrate in search of areas where they can reach the grass in spite of the snow.
The Park contains more than 100 glaciers, over which rock ptarmigan move unobserved. Where the forest is sheltered and the snow thinner, the red deer emerge from the trees to feed on the sparse grass that remains.
As the season progresses, the pregnant female chamois and red deer become visibly larger. The snow and ice thaw and swell the rivers and streams, and the water, the most important ecological substance on the face of the planet, flows freely once again.

PARCO NAZIONALE DEL GRAN PARADISO
Summer 25'20"
Winter 25'16"
The Western Alps form the highest part of the chain that separates Italy from the rest of Europe. They contain the oldest and most famous Italian National Park – Gran Paradiso.
At 3,500 meters, where the snow thaws every summer to allow the grass to grow, the ideal living conditions are created for two important mammals – the chamois and the ibex.
The chamois are the most numerous large mammals in the park, with a population of 7,000, while the ibex numbers have now reached 5,000. In summer, marmots also frequent the alpine meadows. These are the easiest prey for the golden eagle, which is incessantly in search of food for its chick, still living in the nest.

PARCO NAZIONALE DEL CIRCEO
Summer 25'57"
Winter 24'40"
The Circeo is the smallest of the established national parks, but it contains an extraordinary variety of habitats which play host to a large number of animal and plant species. This area is all that remains of the once vast Pontine Marshes, whose lakes survive thanks to constant and careful monitoring of the water flows. In spring and summer, these bodies of water host a large number of birds which migrate from Africa to breed. The remnants of the luxuriant forest that covered the shores thousands of years ago are inhabited by the largest wild mammal in the part, the wild boar. On the southern side of the Circeo promontory, plant species with something of Africa about them prosper. One of the Pontine islands within the Park, Zannone, contains very interesting animals and plants which have evolved at different rhythms from the mainland populations.
In winter, the Circeo plays host to an incredible number of birds which nest elsewhere but feed in the waters of the lakes during the cold season. These regular winter visitors include spoonbills, herons, grey herons, egrets, cormorants, coots and ducks such as tufted ducks, pochards, teals, shovellers and widgeons. And there are also mud-dwelling species, such as the plover and the black-bellied curlew sandpiper, and shyer species like lapwings, corncrakes and water rails. The largest wild mammals in the park are wild boar, permanent residents along with buffaloes, which are reared in semi-wild conditions.

PARCO NAZIONALE DELLA CALABRIA
SILA GRANDE E SILA PICCOLA
24'50"
Of the three areas included in Calabria National Park, Sila Grande and Sila Piccola are the remnants of the vast expanse of forest that covered southern Italy, and both of them abound in conifers, the most widespread of which is the black larch pine. In this part of the Park, inhabited by roe and red deer, a plan for the management of the wild hoofed mammals is being developed, with a view to increasing the population to a level that could sustain a significant number of wolves. In Sila Piccola, a third the size of Sila Grande, the terrain is less steep and the rivers flow more slowly. Here, permanent wells are formed, in which various species of fish live all the year round. In these tranquil places, there lives one of the rarest mammals in Italy – the otter.

PARCO NAZIONALE DELLA CALABRIA: ASPROMONTE
24'32"
The Aspromonte, a place of contrasts. The trees that grow here are the remnants of the forest that once covered all of southern Italy. Their survival and that of all the animals and the plants that live here is due to the opening of Calabria National Park in 1968. Now that the beeches can grow undisturbed, they make up a dense, low forest which provides a humid, protected environment for an amphibian that's widespread in the woods of the Apennines – the pied salamander. Another surprising amphibian found in the Aspromonte is the yellow-bellied toad, known for its defensive displays.

DELTA PADANO
14'01"
Where the waters from the Alps finally reach the sea, we have a mosaic of different and constantly changing environments. What remains of the ancient forests of the Po Valley can be found in the small Mesola Wood, home to red and fallow deer. The waters of the delta are for the most part salty, but there are also freshwater marshes, sizeable islands of sand or gravel and impenetrable cane thickets, which form an ideal nesting habitat. Common gulls, coral gulls, egrets, avocets, redshanks and terns nest in the Po Delta along with a very particular species, the Italian stilt.

ARCIPELAGO TOSCANO
11'56"
Off the coast of Tuscany, four islands emerge from the sea. Their origins vary, but they're all covered with luxuriant Mediterranean vegetation. Gorgona, Capraia, Montecristo and Giannutri make up the Park of the Tuscan Archipelago, and make up a fascinating mosaic of Mediterranean plants and animals. Among the most typical species nesting on the islands are large numbers of Mediterranean gulls, the most widespread of which is the great black-backed gull and the rarest the Corsican gull.

GARGANO
11'55"
Several million years ago, there was only an island in the middle of the sea where the northern tip of Puglia is today. Only rocks appearing on the surface and tall crags bear witness to the turbulent geological past of the Gargano, which today is the spur of the Italian peninsula. At the point where the peninsula meets the mainland, there are still broad, marshy lakes. In the brackish waters of the Lake of Lisina, marsh reeds prosper, making this an ideal environment for wild animals. In the highest part of the Gargano, the Forest of Umbra, which once covered most of the zone, a group of South Italian roe deer still lives on.

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