Alpe di Monghidoro Natural Reserve

The territory surrounding Alpe di Monghidoro, located in the upper valley of the torrent Savena on the ridge between the Idice and the Savena valleys, marks the mountainous border with Tuscany.

Alpe di Monghidoro (literally “Monghidoro’s Alp”) is characterised by a distinctive forestry landscape, dominated by beechwoods at high altitudes. Furthermore, several examples of ferns, such as Dryopteris filix-mas and Athyrium filix-foemina, can be found in the brushwood. The native vegetation, the result of old conifer reforestations, also abounds with silver firs (Abies alba) and hollies (Ilex Aquifolium). The chestnut groves and copses located at low altitudes have contributed to popularizing the area thanks to the refined “Blond Chestnuts” (Marrone Biondo) produced here.

The small residential settlements are surrounded by grazing lands and scything meadows, with numerous water springs, streams, ponds and wetlands which are sometimes the result of past landslides. Such diversified environment is home to a surprisingly large variety of animals and plants, such as the crested newts living inside Fantorno’s Triton’s park, in the private parks near Ca’ di Bagnabecco and Fontanabura, or in the standing water pools within the beechwood clearings. Finallu, a luxuriant hygrophilous vegetation, predominantly based on soft rushes, sedges and horsetails (Juncus spp., Carex., and Equisetum spp.) occupies the Catese meadows and the Passeggere lakes.

Other valuable landmarks include the original windmills, built in a terraced pattern along the course of the torrent Savena, characterised in these points by a quite natural riverbed, and the various veteran trees, among which the abovementioned examples of holly.