DESUIR

Many stretches of water dotting this green casket, create, in the illusion game of reflections and reverberations, virtual images that expand indefinitely, giving the landscape a magical unrealness. The charm of the park lies in the beauty and variety of its landscapes. From the picturesque hills of Monte Soro (1847 m) to the beautiful coasts of S. Agata di Militello and Caronia Marina. An oasis of primordial Sicily once covered with forests, the park still keeps this archaic quality in its ancient forests of beech, true remnants of glacial eras, that still found in high, fresh and deep soils, the most welcoming of habitat for spawning and perpetuation. The cold and humid climate favors the rapid grown of the forests. The forests of Mangalavite, Scavioli, Caronia, Mistretta, Malabotta and the Old Forest, all of natural origin, are the places where the legend has set Daphne, the God of bucolic poetry, ledding his herds, descendants from the herds of the Sun. These mountains, once populated by fawns (Nebros, in Greek, means fawn) bucks, deers, boars, bears, wolves, lynxes, owls and royal vultures, traveled today by flocks of wild blacks pigs, renowned for the delicacy of their meat. The medium altitudes are populated by herds of sanfratellani horses that often drink at the cool waters of Lake Biviere. In areas surrounding the lake park, like Cesarò lake or Treane lake, it is not hard to find marsh turtles, coots, mallards and moorhens. Near the cliffs you can easily meet various specimens of prey birds: golden eagle, the Bonelli eagle, peregrine falcons and lanners. In these areas, until the’60s, the park hosted the last colony of Sicilian griffon vultures, now permanently extinct in the island. In this alternation of lakes, rocky areas and dense forests does not lack the human presence. Even today, the man lives and works in this area: shepherds, farmers, coal miners, cork collectors are the evidence of an ancient and traditional world, disappeared elsewhere. The economy is tied to local products handcrafted by the shepherds. Beyond the natural beauty, the Nebrodi Park embraces the provinces of Messina, Catania and Enna, places rich in tradition and architectural monuments: churches, monasteries, old buildings and narrow streets of ancient medieval construction. Among the traditional festivals, the most characteristical is the “Muzzune” in Alcara Li Fusi, province of Messina. During this ancient festival (June 24) people lay up tables on the town’s streets decorated with precious blankets and the “muzzuni”, jars and jugs with broken necks in which sprout wheat and barley. All the seasons offer opportunities for hiking, but the spring is always the most rich and colorful.