In Italy, between Basilicata and Calabria, Pollino National Park hides a well-kept secret: nearly 200,000 hectares of untamed mountains, Europe’s oldest tree, dramatic gorges and Arbëreshë villages where an ancient Albanian dialect is still spoken. Here, Europe rediscovers a sense of “wild” it had almost forgotten.
One of Italy’s largest parks, Pollino remains off the beaten track. It is precisely this blend of vast scale and quiet discretion that makes it a haven for lovers of unspoilt landscapes: vertiginous ridgelines, forests of ancient pines, dizzying canyons and mountain villages where time seems to stand still.
One massif, two seas
Pollino forms a vast mountain range between the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Ionian Sea, stretching from the 2,200 metres of Monte Pollino down to valleys that nearly meet the sea. Covering close to 200,000 hectares, it is crossed by narrow roads, karst plateaus and rivers that wind like deep scars through the landscape.
Gorges, trails and vertigo
Pollino’s trails invite total immersion. The park boasts around a hundred marked routes, from the Sentiero Italia to regional long-distance paths. The ascent of Serra Dolcedorme, the highest peak in southern Italy at 2,267 metres, cuts through vast beech forests before opening onto the ridges. On a clear day, both seas come into view.
For the more adventurous, the descent into the Raganello Gorges offers a striking experience, walking through water at the foot of towering rock walls. For an added thrill, head to Castelsaraceno, where the world’s longest Tibetan bridge stretches 586 metres across open void, linking Pollino to the Lucanian Apennines National Park.
1,230 years on the clock
The Bosnian pines, known here as pini loricati, have withstood the mountain’s harsh conditions for centuries. Twisted by the wind and clinging to rocky slopes where little else can grow, they are the park’s emblem. Chief among them is Italus, discovered in 2017, which is estimated to be 1,230 years old — it was already growing when Charlemagne ruled. Named after the mythical king said to have given Italy its name, it grows somewhere on the southern slope of Serra delle Ciavole, at an altitude of 1,900 metres. Its exact location remains secret to protect it.
A kingdom of wolves and birds of prey
Pollino is home to a discreet yet rich wildlife, including around forty Apennine wolf, as well as roe deer and red deer reintroduced in 2003. Griffon vultures, back since 2002 after decades of absence, now patrol the skies alongside golden eagles. Wildcats roam the undergrowth, otters have returned to the rivers, and the Calabrian black squirrel leaps between branches. In the deep valleys, naturalists seek out spectacled salamanders and Hermann’s tortoises.
The memory of people
If the pini loricati and wolves tell the story of Pollino’s wilderness, its mountain villages carry its human memory. Among the park’s fifty or so communes, a handful still speak Arbërisht, an Albanian dialect dating back to the 15th century. The ancestors of these communities fled the Ottoman Empire and settled in the mountains of Calabria. In villages such as Civita, San Costantino Albanese and Frascineto, their descendants continue to observe Byzantine rites and celebrate Easter according to the Julian calendar. The Arbëreshë Culture Museum in Civita retraces this little-known story of exile, faith and mountain life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiyvldlgDHE
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