WHY VISIT THE PARK



There are many reasons to visit this splendid wood. However we have decided to choose the reasons we consider to be the most important as they deal with our basic emotions.
One summers day as I was coming back from an excursion in Pian dei Santi, in the higher part of the Tecchie wood, I was going down a path which crossed through an oak wood and led back to Balbano. It was a cool bright day; when Catria appeared on the horizon it seemed to produce its own light. In the previous days it had rained a lot and the North wind had swept clean the skies giving us days of rare beauty with such a clear air that it almost seemed like winter. You could smell the autumn in the clean bracing air.




But once I reached the bottom I found myself in a completely different atmosphere. Shade was cast over everything and the air was full of dampness and smells. When I got to the passageway over the ditch I was tempted to climb up it to see where the water, which hypnotised me with its crystal clear sound, its foaming leaps and tranquil pools, was coming from.
My gaze was captivated by the transparency of the water and I trod as silently as possible on the soft undergrowth when a coloured form caught my attention: I had come upon a magnificent specimen of a fire salamander which was lying still near the water beside the silvery trunk of a beautiful hornbeam . "So they are here." I thought to myself. Just then, perhaps guided by instinct or maybe something similar to primitive instinct, I looked down into the water of a small natural pool: there were a lot of small salamanders hiding at the bottom. I counted eight of them. I had never seen so many...That day, those images and emotions remained in my thoughts for a long time...
Now your time has come, discover your emotions by walking along the various trails which wind through this unique environment.