Nature in the Parks
PADULI MULTIFUNCTIONAL AGRICULTURAL PARK
The “Multifunctional agricultural park of the Paduli” was born out of a desire for public participation and from a need to create a place of environmental-landscape interconnection with a territory dominated mainly by olive trees and agricultural land. It covers an area occupied until 1800 by a dense forest of oaks of which, today, only a few specimens, which escaped destruction, stand near the dense road network as evidence of what for a long time was the < strong>ancient wood of Belvedere. The Parco dei Paduli with its surface area of about 5,500 hectares is a park that occupies a central position, right in the heart of Salento. of territorial connection and interconnection that this area sets itself are very ambitious.From a naturalistic point of view it is a powerful fulcrum of connections and corridors between two protected natural areas on the edge of our peninsula.
REGIONAL NATURAL PARK OTRANTO-LEUCA COAST AND TRICASE WOOD
The “Costa Otranto-Leuca and Tricase Woods” Regional Natural Park, with over 50 kilometers of coastline and 3,200 hectares of land, is the largest regional park in the province of Lecce.
A road with a myriad of twists and turns is the historical backbone of a breathtaking landscape. From the terraced olive trees to the cliffs overlooking the sea, even its most secret corners are places not to be missed. On the eastern coast of Salento, the long rocky coast that extends from Otranto ; to Santa Maria di Leuca gives visitors the impression of a distinct entity from a landscape point of view , sometimes wild and harsh, often fragmented and disconnected, but certainly one of the most beautiful and interesting in Puglia.
A long strip of land enclosed between two historic coastal bulwarks: the Torre del Serpe, an ancient Roman lighthouse, the scene of legendary events, marks the entrance to the Park, in the easternmost point of Italy, the lighthouse of Palascìa, and accompanies us on an exciting journey through breathtaking coves, meadows, pine forests, olive groves, woods and deep ravines up to the mighty lighthouse of Leuca, ending up in that Finibus terrae where even Italy ends and looks far towards another continent.
UGENTO LITORALE REGIONAL NATURAL PARK
On the other side of the peninsula, the “Litorale di Ugento” Regional Natural Park a territory that extends for 1,600 hectares bordered by the towns of Torre San Giovanni and Lido Marini and characterized by a high variety of natural environments. It protects, for a depth of about three kilometers from the coast and for a length of eight, a very valuable coastal sequence, consisting of a system of dunes and dunes, a series of tidal basins and connecting canals, a fossil reef with ravines and from a large area of Mediterranean maquis. Proceeding inland from the sea, you first come across the strip of sandy coasts with dunes even a few meters high, the environments behind the dunes, the marshy and alluvial ones; then follow the terraced marine deposits and the “Serre di Ugento“, hilly limestone rock formations, engraved from time to time by the “gravinelle” , karst gullies parallel to each other and perpendicular to the coast line.
Nature in the Parks
PADULI MULTIFUNCTIONAL AGRICULTURAL PARK
The “Multifunctional agricultural park of the Paduli” was born out of a desire for public participation and from a need to create a place of environmental-landscape interconnection with a territory dominated mainly by olive trees and agricultural land. It covers an area occupied until 1800 by a dense forest of oaks of which, today, only a few specimens, which escaped destruction, stand near the dense road network as evidence of what for a long time was the < strong>ancient wood of Belvedere. The Parco dei Paduli with its surface area of about 5,500 hectares is a park that occupies a central position, right in the heart of Salento. of territorial connection and interconnection that this area sets itself are very ambitious.From a naturalistic point of view it is a powerful fulcrum of connections and corridors between two protected natural areas on the edge of our peninsula.
REGIONAL NATURAL PARK OTRANTO-LEUCA COAST AND TRICASE WOOD
The “Costa Otranto-Leuca and Tricase Woods” Regional Natural Park, with over 50 kilometers of coastline and 3,200 hectares of land, is the largest regional park in the province of Lecce.
A road with a myriad of twists and turns is the historical backbone of a breathtaking landscape. From the terraced olive trees to the cliffs overlooking the sea, even its most secret corners are places not to be missed. On the eastern coast of Salento, the long rocky coast that extends from Otranto ; to Santa Maria di Leuca gives visitors the impression of a distinct entity from a landscape point of view , sometimes wild and harsh, often fragmented and disconnected, but certainly one of the most beautiful and interesting in Puglia.
A long strip of land enclosed between two historic coastal bulwarks: the Torre del Serpe, an ancient Roman lighthouse, the scene of legendary events, marks the entrance to the Park, in the easternmost point of Italy, the lighthouse of Palascìa, and accompanies us on an exciting journey through breathtaking coves, meadows, pine forests, olive groves, woods and deep ravines up to the mighty lighthouse of Leuca, ending up in that Finibus terrae where even Italy ends and looks far towards another continent.
UGENTO LITORALE REGIONAL NATURAL PARK
On the other side of the peninsula, the “Litorale di Ugento” Regional Natural Park a territory that extends for 1,600 hectares bordered by the towns of Torre San Giovanni and Lido Marini and characterized by a high variety of natural environments. It protects, for a depth of about three kilometers from the coast and for a length of eight, a very valuable coastal sequence, consisting of a system of dunes and dunes, a series of tidal basins and connecting canals, a fossil reef with ravines and from a large area of Mediterranean maquis. Proceeding inland from the sea, you first come across the strip of sandy coasts with dunes even a few meters high, the environments behind the dunes, the marshy and alluvial ones; then follow the terraced marine deposits and the “Serre di Ugento“, hilly limestone rock formations, engraved from time to time by the “gravinelle” , karst gullies parallel to each other and perpendicular to the coast line.
