Natural beauties
Not only sea, during your holiday in Catania! Go visiting the beautiful province natural parks, easily reachable from the Best Western Hotel Mediterraneo.
Etna Nature Park
Established in 1987, is the first natural park in Sicily and after Nebrodi Park is, with its 59,000 acres, the largest protected area of Sicily.
Etna Nature Park, divided into four security zones, embracing twenty municipalities of the Province of Catania and represents a unique habitat in the Mediterranean which can be easily adapted to many animal and plant varieties while the slopes are characterized by cones formed during eruptions during the millennia.
The Bove Valley is a depression on the eastern flank of the volcano and in its abruptest part is 1200m high. Its origin is due to one or more landslides occurred on the side of the volcano during explosive eruptions.
Alcantara Park
The Park includes the territory of 12 municipalities between Messina and Catania. The river Alcantara born on Nebrodi and flows of the Ionian Sea near Naxos; along its path has eroded volcanic rocks creating gullies and bringing to light the heart of the lava flows.
Nebrodi Park
Nebrodi Park is the largest protected area of Sicily and its 70 km of mountain range accounted for 50% of the forests of the island.
The word Nebrodi comes from the greek "Nebros" (fawn), once numerous, but because of poaching and the progressive impoverishment of fauna was recorded extinction of some important species such as deer, fallow deer, wolf, roe deer and the eagle owl.
The main features of the landscape Nebrodi are the asymmetry of the various slopes, the different shaping of relief, the rich vegetation and the wetlands, forests have a major impact on the climate of the area which is characterized by its long, harsh winters and hot summers.
The vegetation of the park Nebrodi changes depending on the height, but mostly you will encounter a Mediterranean evergreen maquis, and to discover the deciduous oak you will need to climb between 1,200 and 1,400 meters above sea level.