Listening to the sublime score of the sounds of nature is an experience that restores psycho-physical well-being and inner peace.
The Umbra Forest Nature Reserve has preserved its majestic and imposing forest mantle almost intact, a remnant of the forest that, probably until the end of the 1700s, cloaked the entire spur of Italy. There are over 10,000 hectares of uninterrupted woods characterized by a varied vegetation: aleppo pines, oaks, holms, Turkey oaks and centuries-old beech trees that make up the famous "old beech wood" of the Umbra Forest, in the Gargano National Park, Unesco World Heritage Site since 2017. The beech forest of the Umbra Forest extends over the Gargano promontory for about 3200 hectares, of which 182 have been recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site - together to another fifty beech woods scattered throughout Europe. But the low altitude at which the Umbra Forest is located allows, unlike the other beech woods, the penetration of many less frequent high-altitude plant species, such as lime, maple, hornbeam, or even many species of ferns, holly, anemones, violets and cyclamen and many species of orchids.
And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything
William Shakespeare
The Gargano National Park is the European park with the highest concentration of spontaneous orchids
Out of about 230 species presented in all in Italy (about 500 in Europe), as many as 85 species, belonging to 17 different types, are found in this area. A flowery paradise where a very diverse population of fauna lives, including roe deers, wolves, foxes, squirrels, mouflons, martens, porcupines, dormices and many species of reptiles, insects and birds, including the woodpecker, the peregrine falcon, the eagle owl, cuckoo, hoopoe, duck and many sparrows that, together with the sound of the wind between the thick branches, participate in the concert of the magical breath of the Forest.
Exclusive experiences to discover the Gargano National Park
Walks and trekking, mountain bike or horseback excursions in the Umbra Forest, visits to historic villages, monuments, artisan shops, traditional cooking workshops and tastings of typical products, walks along the lakes of the Gargano or between coastal towers and trebuchets.