Sibillini Mountains National Park

This year I decided to buy a van to fully explore my country Italy. I always thought there would be time, even when I was older to travel in my country.

Then came the pandemic with the Lockdowns and all the travel restrictions that we all have experienced.

The first location of this long one-year trip to Italy was the Sibillini Mountains National Park in Italy, which includes the homonymous mountain range, extends for about thirty kilometers in the heart of the Central Apennines and the surrounding hills. Its territory falls within the Marche region and in a small portion of the Umbria region.

Here, the powerful action of nature and the activity of man, present in these places for millennia, are the basis of the extraordinary landscape, naturalistic and historical-cultural richness of the Park.

Of the many villages that are part of the park, the most characteristic is undoubtedly Castelluccio di Norcia, a village that seems to have come out of a dream. During my visit in July 2021 the village was still a heap of rubble caused by the strong earthquake of 2016. Luckily the warm locals adapted well by organizing themselves to receive the hordes of visitors during the famous “Fioritura” (lentils bloom).

This is one of the best known and most important events in the whole region; A historical, cultural and naturalistic event much appreciated by tourists and traditionally maintained by the locals: the flowering of Castelluccio in the “Piana Grande”. A wonder of nature, a triumph of colors that is renewed every year, between June and July.

Unfortunately during my visit the best of flowering had already passed … all the more reason that will definitely keep me coming back next season.