Birds, bears and wolves: the Majella National Park has them all – and more !  It’s a natural Abruzzo treasure for you to explore during your Villasfor2 vacation.

Sit on the terrace outside your Abruzzo holiday villa and glance to your right. There's the Majella National Park. Within 20 minutes, you could be walking through the spectacular gorges outside Fara San Martino in the shadow of the towering Monte Acquaviva, at 2737 metres - (just under 9000 feet) - one of the tallest peaks in the Apennine chain.

Or you could sit on your terrace and wait for natural Abruzzo to come to you. Look up. The Majella is the

home of some spectacular birds of prey including golden eagle, peregrine falcons and goshawks, eagle owls, buzzards and kites. Most days, you'll see - and hear - eagles and buzzards patrolling the skies high above your Abruzzo holiday villa. Out in the open countryside, it's not that unusual to see one perched on a telegraph pole surverying its territory. Kites, with their massive wingspans and distinctive forked tails, are unmistakable. The hawks are a little harder to spot and for a glimpse of the eagle owl, you'll have to follow one of the many signposted trails into its habitat in the forests of the Majella. 

Rather more homely than these big birds of prey is the delightful and unmistakable Hoopoe, which you'll see in the fields, vineyards and olive groves around Villasfor2 during the summer using its long beak to probe the ground for tasty little grubs. 

And you'll hear rather than see the Little Owl. Though you can occasionally spot one by day, you're likeliest to catch an occasional glimpse of this common - but tiny - bird in your car headlights at night.

The Majella is one of three National Parks in Abruzzo. No Italian region has more and no Italian region has a greater proportion of National Park to its total size. A little to the north of Villasfor2 - but still easily accessible for a day's outing - is the Gran Sasso, where you'll find the highest mountain in the Apennines and the southernmost glacier in Europe; further to the west is the huge Abruzzo National Park - the oldest in Italy - which spills into neighbouring Lazio and Molise.

You can find out more about the Majella National Park - including its comprehensive network of walking trails - on its excellent website in English, French and German.

And having shown you a few of the Majella's birds this time, in the second part of the Majella blog we'll look at the animals !  

Abruzzo holiday villa, apennines, Majella National Park, natural Abruzzo, Villasfor2

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 at 3:35 am and is filed under Mountains and Forests, Where To Go, About Abruzzo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.