Fiume Fiumetto Natural Reserve

Of particular naturalistic and landscape value is the Fiume Fiumetto Nature Reserve, established in 1990. The territory that encloses extends a little more than 74 hectares distributed in a narrow strip of about 10 kilometers along the stream Fiumetto almost entirely close to the town of Castiglione della Valley and oscillates from a minimum height of 245 m above sea level at a maximum of 500 m. Given these peculiarities, the Reserve is a real ecological corridor of fundamental importance for the many species of flora and fauna that insist there: birds such as nightingale, pendolino, kingfisher, yellow wagtail, green woodpecker, collared dove, titmouse and others more, but also mammals like skunks, badgers, martens, foxes, while for what concerns the vegetation it is typical of the fluvial areas, therefore in particular willows, poplars, oaks and oaks.

In the Reserve there is also a Visitor Center, used to carry out the reception and information activities of visitors and laboratories for educational activities. The Center consists of several rooms such as an herbarium containing all the wood species of the reserve, a xyloteca (from the Greek xilo, ie wood), an insectarium, an educational pond and a thematic bulletin board on the fauna of the Fiumetto river. In addition, there is also a restaurant with a small kitchen in the structure and, during the year, it is a venue for meetings, conferences, exhibitions and theme days.