Aspromonte

Aspromonte National Park protects the massif that occupies the southern tip of the Italian peninsula, in Calabria, looking out over the Strait of Messina. Its administrative origin goes back to 1989, when the former Calabria National Park was reorganised, and it took its definitive shape in the 1990s.

Aspromonte is geologically distinct from the rest of the Apennines: it is made up of ancient crystalline and metamorphic rocks, not limestone, and its recent and very rapid tectonic uplift has produced a characteristic relief of stepped terraces climbing from the sea to close to 2,000 metres within very few kilometres. That steep gradient, combined with its position between two seas, generates a succession of environments running from the Mediterranean scrub and cork oak woods of the coast to the beech and fir forests of the summits.

The watercourses here take the form of fiumare: torrents with wide, stony beds, dry for much of the year and devastating during the rains, which have cut deep gorges and waterfalls. The park preserves the beech wood of Valle Infernale, included in the UNESCO serial property of European beech forests. Its position above the Strait of Messina also makes it a privileged point for watching the migration of raptors and other soaring birds between Africa and Europe. The Grecanic-speaking villages survive in its valleys, communities of Greek origin that preserve a language of their own.