ANTOLA VALLEYS: EXPERIENCES AND EMOTIONS IN THE OTHER LIGURIA

In the heart of the Ligurian is a slice of heaven a stone's throw from the coast which has preserved its natural beauty, history, traditions and currently he is, with his host, who is planning a holiday full of experiences in nature, history and outdoor activities.

The Antola Valleys, marked by the course of the Torrente Scrivia and the Trebbia River, rich in fresh, clean water that are an angler's paradise, located in the part of Liguria bordering with Piedmont and Emilia.

Here you can easily get from Genoa to Milan by the A7, from Piacenza on State Road 45 in the Trebbia: find the ancient rural world, with its memories and its secular traditions, you have the Natural Park of Antola, rich in flora and fauna, crossed by hundreds of kilometers of trails that will, through forests and valleys, all the way up to the pastures and the ridges of the mountains, where you can enjoy endless views ranging from Corsica and the Ligurian Sea to the western and central Alps, dominated by the wharves of the Monviso and Monte Rosa, clear days and clear days it seems to touch.

Yes, because in the "Valleys dell'Antola" we have a clear sky, and starry nights the show there will be a bridge to the infinite; it is no coincidence that we have achieved, in one of the areas of Italy with less light pollution, an astronomical observatory vanguard visited all year round.

In the Antola Valleys day alternates with night with new emotions: what is that noise you heard in the beech forest at dawn? A deer? Or the elusive wolf, who returned, going up all over the Apennines, also popular in our mountains? When you walk on our paths, occasionally take a moment to rest, and listen: in spring you'll hear the insistent song of the cuckoo or the woodpecker with its beak digging tree trunks, and the noise that often feels almost dramatic at autumn what is? They are male deer, which together with the powerful antlers fight their battles for dominance in the flock.

And then, the wind in the trees, now a gentle breeze, now a raging river where fly leaves and noises coming from afar. Or, in the silence of a summer noon, the rumble of thunder in the distance that heralds the arrival of the storm and the snow, and winter begins to fall before almost lazily and then whitening as a cloak until spring summits mountains and allows you to walk with snowshoes or practice ski touring, confusing your tracks with those of wild animals.

In the Antola Valleys you find abandoned villages, where time seems to have stopped 100 years ago and houses are there, still open with their furnishings, as if the inhabitants have to return at any moment, to witness a life of hard work that has hardened over the centuries the character of our people.

But there is also so much acceptance, in hotels located in prime locations as well as in the many Bed & Breakfast, cottages and mountain huts that have sprung a bit anywhere in the area, and you can taste many typical products of the "Valleys dell'Antola", from the rose syrup, a nectar, the sweet scallops, whose scent fills the streets around the ovens, including salami, cheese, potatoes from the famous "quarantine " to the exquisite meat of animals that live almost year round brady on the mountain pastures, honey, sweet and pure, and fungi, which grow abundant and fragrant autumn in the woods of chestnut and beech .

For those who want to play sports there will be spoiled for choice: the streets you can enjoy cycling, which will take on challenging climbs and descents down down at breakneck speed, while the paths of the Antola park are the perfect outdoor gym where to practice mountain biking or horseback tourism, to which you can enjoy also using the centers of equestrian tourism in the area. And there's more: there is orienteering, there is the exciting fishing along creeks, there is the descent of the swollen rivers with canoes and, for those who want to take a panoramic view, paragliding or hang-gliding.

In short, a territory Valli dell'Antola are alive and full of offers of access; next to the natural beauty you can find our history, not only made of ancient villages where traditions are revived, re-enactments and cribs, but also a dense network of museums featuring important medieval castles, some restored and can be visited and others in ruins and evidence of a feudal past in which took turns in this valley, along the ancient " salt routes " crossed by caravans of mules, the domains of all the most important families in Genoa and lower Piedmont.

We are the custodians of our traditions in the "Valleys dell'Antola", but we like to share with our guests: come and visit us, you will witness the ancient religious rites, and then, put your boots or got on the bike, as if by magic find on top of the mountains to watch a sunset and to follow the flight of the eagle, and then still visit museums and visitor centers in the Park, and finally, after a tasty dinner to rest, as you do not happen for some time, in an old mansion.

Antola Valleys: experience and emotion, not just a holiday.
 

Roberto Costa