In the green of the pine forests
Bosco della Maddalena – Fiaiano: in the green pine forests
Duration: 3 hours
Difficulty: E
Difference in altitude: 150 m
Downhill altitude difference: 200 m
Maximum altitude: 265 m
Length of the route: 7.5 km
Departure: Casamicciola Terme (at the Castiglione Thermal Park) at 09.00
Arrival: Pinewood of Fiaiano
Route: Bosco della Maddalena, Monte Rotaro, Fondo d'Oglio, Fondo Ferraro, Pineta di Fiaiano
Equipment: mandatory hiking shoes and layered clothing, water
Cost: €18 with Expert Environmental Excursion Guide
Booking: compulsory and possible by 5.00 pm of the previous day
The excursion takes place with a minimum of 7 participants.
Route description:
Ischia, a volcanic island, where the union between geology and land reorganization is very close. Let's dive into a path that combines the geological aspects still in progress (the fumaroles) with the naturalistic ones in a cocktail of colors, smells and peculiar aspects of this Mediterranean paradise.
The excursion begins from one of the best preserved volcanic complexes on the island. Starting from the Bosco della Maddalena in Casamicciola Terme, which stands on a volcanic dome, you arrive at the border between the Montagnone covered in wild Mediterranean scrub and Monte Rotaro, the realm of a thick pine forest.
Crossing the crest of the crater and admiring its bottom, you continue up to a series of active "fumaroles", testimony, together with the thermal springs, of the island's vitality.
There, among the variegated flora, there is the rare species Pycreus polystachios (papyrus of the fumaroles), a non-endemic species, but which has found a favorable microhabitat for its growth in some areas of this island.
We then continue towards the "Fondo Ferraro" volcano to arrive at the small town of Fiaiano and then dive into the green pine forest, which stands on the flow of the Arso crater (last eruption of the island in 1301), where the route ends.