Abruzzo National Park
Fifty thousand hectares of beech forest between Pescasseroli and Villetta Barrea, and the entire world population of the Marsican brown bear.
It is the oldest national park in Italy along with Gran Paradiso: established in 1922, when the very idea of protecting a territory was new. It straddles three regions, but its heart is the Sangro valley between Pescasseroli, Opi, Villetta Barrea and Civitella Alfedena, fifty thousand hectares of beech forest that in autumn turn every colour red can take.
The bear
The Marsican brown bear lives only here. It is a subspecies separated from the Alpine one for some thousands of years, smaller and gentler, and about fifty are left: which means every single animal counts. Seeing one is a matter of luck and early hours, not of choosing the right path; the park asks visitors not to go looking for them, not to leave food, and to respect the seasonal closures of certain areas, which exist for exactly that reason.
Every single animal counts: there are about fifty, and they are all that exist in the world.
The Marsican brown bear
The others
The Apennine chamois is the species you really do see here: a few hundred animals, and the Camosciara is named after them for that reason. Then there is the Apennine wolf, the red deer, the roe deer, the golden eagle. In September, at dusk, the stags bell and the sound carries for kilometres: that is why the park fills up at that time of year with people carrying binoculars.
Where you walk
The two easiest ways in are Val Fondillo, above Opi, and the Camosciara, which have parking, waymarked paths and height gains that children can manage. Anyone wanting a serious walk climbs Monte Amaro di Opi or the Val di Rose, which has a daily quota precisely so as not to disturb the chamois. The ancient beech forest of Val Cervara, the oldest in Europe, is UNESCO heritage.