Italy
The Big Five
Explore the Italian wilderness, and learn about Marsican brown bears, wolves, deer, wild boar and the endemic Apennine chamois during this sustainable adventure.
Our journey through the Central Apennines rewilding area takes us across thousands of hectares of beautiful rugged mountains, deep valleys and extensive beech forest. This region of Italy is a biodiversity hotspot with abundant populations of iconic species such as brown bears, wolves, deer, wild boars and the endemic Apennine chamois. Little villages still characterized by the traditional lifestyle of the people who live there provide a special mix of culture and nature that makes this area unique in Europe.
Together with your nature guide, you will explore the Park’s wilderness, following the tracks of the large animals and learning how to correctly approach the wildlife. We will focus our efforts on Marsican bears and wolves, while we will have good chances to see chamois, deer and wild boar. The long days in the field will be concluded with tasty meals from the world-famous Italian cuisine, a bottle of good wine in the friendly atmosphere of a very comfortable hotel.
An incredible biodiversity hotspot
DAY TO DAY PROGRAM
Day 1 Welcome. You are greeted by our staff at our office in Pescasseroli. Check into your rooms before we sit down for an introduction and get to know each other a bit. We will have a short walk to introduce you to the park. Dinner with local products and overnight stay.
Day 2 Explore. Sunrise wildlife watching session. After a hearty breakfast we will take a walk through an old-growth forest. We learn about the inhabitants of our beech woods ecosystem. We return to the hotel late in the evening.
Day 3 Wolves move very early in the morning. After a coffee we will move along the southern slope of a mountain. Historically, this area has been frequented by wolves. Transfer to Civitella Alfedena, visit to the Apennine Wolf Museum. Lunch and hike to the mountain refuge. Dinner based on local products and overnight stay in the mountain refuge.
Day 4 Sirente Velino Regional Reserve. After breakfast we will reach the reserve. There are excellent opportunities to experience species such as golden eagle, griffon vulture, peregrine falcon, lanner falcon. Return to the hotel, dinner and overnight stay.
Day 5 Time to say our goodbyes. After breakfast and at the end of five fascinating days together with your guide, it’s time to say goodbye.
TRIP DETAILS
- 5 days/ 4 nights, a shorter trip is an option when you book a private tour
- Season: All year
- Accommodation: One night in the mountain refuge double room ,three nights in a local family-run hotel in a double room
- Guide: Umberto, Valeria or Marco
- How to get there: Closest airports are Rome Fiumicino and Pescara Airport. You can rent a car from the airport for an easy 3 hr drive to the town of Pescasseroli, or request to book a transfer from/to the airport with us. You can also reach Pescasseroli by train (to Avezzano) and bus: www.tuabruzzo.i
- Languages: English, Italian
PRICES
- Private tour (starting 2 people) - flexible dates
- 2-3 people: € 795,00 (5 days / 4 nights)
- 4-8 people: € 595,00 (5 days / 4 nights)
- 2-3 people: € 685,00 (4 days / 3 nights)
- 4-8 people: € 515,00 (5 days / 4 nights)
- Scheduled group tour (4-8 people) : € 420,00 (5 days / 4 nights)
- Next trip dates:
- 26 August 2020
- 14 October 2020
- 5 May 2021
- 14 July 2021
- The cost includes: Internal transfer. Half-board in double rooms with services, support of official nature guide. Binoculars and Nikon spotting scopes rental. Use of a thermal camera. Dinner in restaurants and bivouac. Internal transfers
- The cost does not include: Lunches or packed lunch and anything not mentioned. Transfer from and to Rome Fiumicino or Pescara Airport. Flights
- What to bring: We reccomend you to dress in layers. Hiking shoes, sun hat, water bottle, daypack, long pants, hat and wool gloves, jacket, raincoat or poncho, sun protection cream, non smelling mosquito repellent. Personal toiletries/medicines and a sense of adventure!
OUR RESPONSIBILITY
Rewilding Europe Levy: 5% of your booking sum goes to the local Rewilding Europe organization.
In the Central Apennines rewilding area Rewilding Europe is working with local partners to develop large “coexistence corridors” by connecting the local economy with wilder nature in five corridors collectively covering more than 40,000 hectares.
By reducing the damage caused by such wildlife, and by allowing communities to benefit from it, people living here will become ambassadors for the area’s wild nature.
Rewilding Europe is working with local partners to reduce bear mortality and conflict by installing traffic accident prevention measures, removing old fencing, restoring and improving signage, and distributing new mobile electric fences. By working to establish a vibrant nature-based economy in the Central Apennines rewilding area, Rewilding Europe is providing local communities with an economic incentive to protect such wildlife.
Read know more about rewilding work in the Central Apennines here
CONTACT OUR SAFARI EXPERT
Aukje Van Gerven
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+31 6 8358 3623
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info@europeansafaricompany
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Skype: europeansafaricompany
OUR LOCAL PARTNER
Meet Umberto
Umberto Esposito was born in 1982 and took up the interest in photography when he was just a kid.
After finishing his studies he started his career as nature guide, working between Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise, thus merging two big passions in his profession: nature and photography.
The experience he had at the end of the nineties when he encountered his first bears, and the emotion that the first images he made evoked, drove him to what is nowadays his profession.
In 2009 he started Wildlife Adventures, a company engaged in spreading the emotions he had as a youngster to those who visit the mountains of the Central Apennines.
He is a hiking instructor registered with the Alpine Guides of the Abruzzo region and also a nature photographer. He is convinced that the environment has a very important role for people and for society and he works every day on this principles.
He is an author of various education and environmental communication projects and regularly works together with the local authorities and various NGOs.
He is co-author of Forest Beat a multimedia projects of photography, focused on the ancient Apennine beech forests and he has published articles and images on various magazines.
"It would be fitting, I think, if among the last man made tracks on earth would be found the footprints of the great brown bear"
Earl Fleming
Umberto Esposito
Wildlife Adventures,Italy