Sila Park: The Great Forest of Calabria
Sila Park is one of the largest and least-visited national parks in Italy — a high plateau of ancient forest, glacial lakes, and open meadows that occupies the center of Calabria at altitudes between 1,000 and 1,900 meters, visible from both coasts of the peninsula on clear days and entirely different in character from the coastal landscapes that most travelers associate with southern Italy. The Sila deer, reintroduced to the park after local extinction in the mid-20th century, is now well established and visible in the open meadows at dawn and dusk. The park also supports populations of wild boar, roe deer, and the Sila squirrel — a local subspecies — as well as an exceptional variety of raptors including golden eagle, peregrine falcon, and honey buzzard. The lakes of the Sila — Lago Arvo, Lago Ampollino, and Lago Cecita — attract significant numbers of wintering waterbirds and are among the best birdwatching sites in Calabria.
The Villages and the Food
The villages of the Sila plateau — Camigliatello Silano, Lorica, San Giovanni in Fiore — are modest ski and hiking resorts in summer and winter respectively, their restaurants serving a mountain food culture built on mushrooms, local cheeses, cured meats, and the fresh pasta of the Calabrian interior. The funghi porcini of the Sila are among the finest in Italy, the forests producing them in quantities that sustain a significant local trade, and the combination of a morning trail walk and a lunch of pasta ai funghi in one of the plateau villages is the classic Sila day that local visitors have been enjoying for generations.
Sila Park on a Calabria Self-Drive
The Sila Park trails connect naturally into a self-guided tour of Calabria that combines the plateau with a visit to Tropea on the Tyrrhenian coast and a city tour of Reggio Calabria at the southern tip. Explore the full Calabria region to see how the park fits into a complete regional itinerary, then contact our team to start planning, or learn more about how a self-guided tour works.
