Nature reserves ... pristine oases

From the photographer Enzo Sellerio, who may have been the first to capture all the scenic power ofRagusa’s carob trees, to Giuseppe Leone’s stunning images of the contrade, the farming villages, not to mention Piero Guccione, whose paintings are suffused with the light of the Hyblaean wilderness. But who can remain indifferent to the splendour of the Hyblaean countryside, with its web of dry stone walls delimiting the pasturelands? And then there are the Irminio and Aleppo Pine nature reserves, places of remarkable natural beauty which have been such a source of inspiration.

The Irminio river springs from Monte Lauro, the highest peak in the Hyblaean mountains, and is the longest river in the province of Ragusa. The Nature Reserve was established in 1985 to protect the mouth of the river Irminio between Marina di Ragusa and Donnalucata: here, the green of the vegetation and the blue of the sea come together, separated by a strip of white sand. We highly recommend taking a stroll through this reserve, with its succession of dunes, rocky outcrops and sea cliffs.

The reserve features a number of characteristic plants, such as Prickly Juniper (Juniperus oxycedrus), Joint Pine (Ephedra fragilis), Lentisk (Pistacia lentiscus), Southern Tea Tree (Lycium intricatum), White Hedge-nettle (Prasium majus) and Wormwood (Artemisia sp.), together with birds such as the Kingfisher, Hoopoe and Marsh Harrier, as well as reptiles such as the European Leopard Snake (Zamenis situla) and Western Green Lizard (Lacerta bilineata). The Pino d’Aleppo Nature Reserve, meanwhile, was established in 1990 in order to preserve the native Aleppo Pine (Pinus halepensis) and help recreate the old pine forest once destroyed by human activity. This reserve is within easy reach of the towns of Ragusa, Vittoria and Comiso and occupies the lower stretches of the river Ippari. As well as the Aleppo Pine, the reserve also hosts other species of trees such as poplars, willows, sallows, olives, carobs and mastics. Bird species that thrive in this area include the Goldfinch, Serin, Blackbird, Hoopoe, Woodpigeon, Turtle Dove, Magpie, Moorhen, Grey Wagtail, White Wagtail, and Buzzard.