Gypsum Vein Park - Parco della vena del gesso [Day 2]

Hi Hivers! How are you? I hope everything is great :) Here in Italy winter has arrived and with only a few days to Christmas, it's very cold!!! Luckily I have some shots to post about a very nice place I visited during a spring, maybe these shots will help you to warm up a bit, who knows...

Today I'm talking to you again about the adventure I had at the Gypsum Vein in Brisighella, a walk I had already told you about but which I want to address in some detail. Yes, because during the first visit I was struck intensely by the beauty of these landscapes, the hills and the set of 1000 sensations that you have looking around... today I want to show you the details that can be admired by looking more closely at the flowers, blades of grass and insects that populate these magnificent lands.

The Regional Park of the Gypsum Vein of Romagna was established by the Regional Law no. 10 of 21 February 2005.

The total surface of the park is 6.063 hectares, of which 2.041 hectares of park and 4.022 hectares of contiguous area. The park areas are divided as follows: zone A of integral protection 52 hectares; zone B of general protection 749 hectares; zone C of environmental protection 1.240 hectares.

The valleys of Santerno, Senio, Sintria and Lamone, which run through the Apennines in the western part of Romagna, are intersected by the Gypsum Vein of Romagna, about ten kilometers from the line of junction with the plain. It is a ridge of calcium sulphate, variously crystallized and stratified in imposing banks, which emerges for a length of about twenty kilometers and with a width that never exceeds one kilometer, crossing the territories of the municipalities of Casalfumanese, Borgo Tossignano and Fontanelice in the province of Bologna and Casola Valsenio, Riolo-Terme and Brisighella in the province of Ravenna.

The Gessosa-Solffera Formation, for its impressiveness and composition, for the extraordinary variety of its morphology and the typicality of its flora and fauna, has affected the construction of the landscape that stretches all around, favorably influencing the microclimate of the four valleys, leaving also its mark in the history and in the life of men.

It is a natural and historical richness that surprises and fascinates the hiker who walks along the paths of the Park. Starting from those that intersect the spurs from where you can catch the green and the shadow of the northern side or the bright aridity of the banks of the southern side that, reflecting the moonlight, were called "moonstone". Continuing with the paths that wind along the ridge and that after each turn or bump offer suggestive glimpses of the crystallization of gypsum; swallow holes and resurgences and caves with signs of ancient human presence and deep caves and even botanical rarities or the rapid escape of a wild animal.

Without forgetting the traces left by the work and life of men: dwellings, remains of religious and military settlements or ancient gypsum quarries. But the most exciting excursion is along the flo of the ridge: a path that fills the eyes and excites the soul with the extraordinary richness of the Vein and the landscape that opens upstream and downstream.

On one side the green-blue ridges follow one another fading into the horizon line; on the other, beyond the low band of the arid cobwebs of the gullies, lies a white plain of houses, towns and cities, bordered by the line of the sea that from here, in the words of Tonino Guerra, looks like "a long blue line".

Here we see some images still far away, the beautiful landscapes that we can admire in Romagna, from above we can see hills and small mountains... even further down the valleys and city settlements that populate this land.

An airplane crosses the sky and from down here I wonder where it will be headed. It fascinates me a lot to see the planes and think about the people who are traveling, who knows where they will go, what experiences they will live ... who knows what brings them to be up there, each of us in life has driving forces that lead us to undertake trips and many other things, but why?

Let's come back here, to the earth and admire these beautiful blades of grass, pure life born from the earth...bright green, spring is the season where everything is born and I long for it.

This particular photo shows my reflection in the lenses of the sunglasses I bought on vacation, maybe the photo is not the best but I like to remember that moment.

It's beautiful, after a long walk, to lie down on the grass, and see the details of what's around you.

If before the world seemed boundless, from here you can admire the smallest details of what makes it up, grass, flowers, soil and insects; all details of a fantastic mosaic: nature.

During the walk I found this beautiful and very rare purple orchid.

The purple orchid or greater orchid is a plant belonging to the family Orchidaceae, among the wild orchids is definitely the one with the largest flower on the Italian territory.

It is a herbaceous plant, with cylindrical stem, green in color, stained red at the top, 30 to 80 cm high.

The root system consists of two ovoid rhizotubers. The leaves, thick and shiny, oblong-lanceolate, are long up to 8-10 cm and are united to form a rosette that sheathes the stem at the base.

The inflorescence is constituted by a thick spike, 5-15 cm long, initially conical, then ovoid. The flowers are white to purple-red in color, with purple-brown sepals and petals joined to form a sort of globular helmet. The labellum is pinkish white, spotted with purple, well divided into three distinct lobes of which the middle one, larger, is in turn bilobo with an appendage of variable length in the middle. On the whole it takes on a roughly anthropomorphic appearance.

It blooms from April to June, a truly stupendous flower.

I also found a beautiful plant that I believe is hydrangea arborescens, a floral plant in the Hydrangeaceae family. The scientific name of this genus (Hydrangea) officially goes back to Linnaeus who described it in his work Species Plantarum (1753).

Linnaeus himself, as we can see, refers for this plant to the work Flora Virginica (1739) by the Dutch botanist Gronovius, who was therefore probably the first to use the scientific name Hydrangea.

The perspective of the landscape that returns from detail to a broader view of the valleys.

I want to conclude with two panoramic shots made with my camera to give you an idea of how beautiful is the view of the landscape at 360 °.

I'll be back soon to visit Brisigella and the beautiful gypsum vein, these places are fantastic and are perfect to realign our body with our soul, often a relaxing walk is enough to be able to erase the stress of a working week.

Thanks for reading, if you liked the post you can upvote me and follow me, I love to share this kind of information, see you soon!!!