Description

The area is covered by vast forests, groves of birches, oaks and chestnut trees flourish at the bottom of the valley, giving way to stately beech forests along the mid range mountain belt. There are thickets of silver firs and Alpine spruces at the higher altitudes. The park is home to many of the mammals and birds which inhabit the mountain regions such as red deer, chamois and roe deer and even eagles. Alpine pastures and maggenghi - grasslands which were used as springtime pastures – many abandoned, a few carefully restored - are scattered throughout the valley as evidence of the ancient practice of the transhumance.

Because of its micro climate, the valley features the presence of rare botanical species some of which are endemic to the area. In addition the Val Sanagra contains some of the oldest rock formations in Italy and some go way back to the mid-Carboniferous period.

Many walking routes have been traced out it this large territory. One of them starts at the location Piamuro, close to the cemetery of the village Loveno, and follows the course of the river Sanagra with traces of traditional activities like mills, lime-pits and furnaces among ancient mills and furnaces that used the Sanagra’s hydraulic energy, and leads to the ancient rural settlement of Monti di Madri. Another route, again starting at Piamuro, leads through Codogna, with some ancient elegant villas once owned by the local landowners, to “Il Rogolone" an enormous oak tree, also symbol of the Park.

In the Villa Camozzi at Codogna you can visit the Museum “Museo Etnografico Naturalistico della Val Sanagra" . This museum collects historic and naturalistic knowledge of the Val Sanagra. There are different rooms dedicated to palaentologic findings, antique crafts, the old Menaggio-Porlezza railway, and the town's brass band. In addition, there are three dioramas which show the different environments of the valley and their fauna.