From thousand-year-old oaks to Italy's oldest plane tree. These are Italy's monumental trees. Going to visit them is a chance to take a day trip in the spirit of respect for nature and the environment that these ancient giants inspire.
Italy's monumental trees — estimated by the Corpo Forestale at around 22,000 — are hundreds, if not thousands, of years old. Among these, more than 2,000 are classified as being of "great interest" and as many as 150 of "exceptional historical or monumental value", evenly distributed across northern, central and southern Italy. Some are of particular importance for being exceptionally old, for having been at the centre of historical events, or for being connected to episodes in the lives of illustrious figures. They are, in short, natural monuments that stand alongside those created by human hands and constitute a heritage of inestimable value — to be discovered, protected and celebrated. Now, thanks to Law 10/2013, they will be even better protected, and as soon as the implementing decrees are issued, a new census will be launched, overseen by municipalities and regions, updating the one carried out in 1982.
Here are directions to go and visit these old, silent, fabulous witnesses to the history of the environment and the nation, for a journey to be made in the most reverent respect for nature. Just as one would go to visit an old sage: slowly, quietly and ecologically, filled with admiration.
Monza Park
Monza is a name associated with motorsport enthusiasts, but thanks to its centuries-old park it is also known to lovers of nature and history. The feature that has made these 40 hectares of greenery famous worldwide is the great variety of centuries-old trees. Two in particular stand out: the twin oaks, one an English oak and one a scarlet oak. Standing over 26 metres tall with a diameter of 600 centimetres, the two queens of the Villa Reale park were brought from America in the early nineteenth century by the Viceroy of Italy Eugène de Beauharnais, who tended the park at the behest of Napoleon Bonaparte himself. A neophyte species native to North America, the oak was introduced to Europe for ornamental and forestry purposes at the turn of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
While you are in Monza, take a look also at the splendid avenues dotted with specimens of the nettle tree (Celtis australis L.), also known as the Mediterranean hackberry, which likewise features on the list of trees of historical value.
Pazzon Platano in San Martino Platano, Caprino Veronese
This twisted, extraordinary plane tree (Platanus orientalis) in San Martino Platano, Caprino Veronese (in the province of Verona) is a national monument. It has a circumference of around 15 metres, though it is difficult to measure given its contorted shape. It was planted around 1400, making it over 610 years old. It takes its name from an episode in 1937 when, during an Italian army exercise, 100 soldiers hid among its branches.
Campiglione Fenile
There is a small village in the province of Turin, on the outskirts of Cavour, whose territory includes a remarkable collection of monumental trees. Chief among them are two bicentennial plane trees of the hybrid species Platanus x acerifolia, nicknamed Gli Imbronciati (The Sulkers). There are also — all several centuries old — black pines, an English oak, the largest tulip tree in the region, which soars in the garden of the Castle, and the magnificent Caucasian walnut in front of the parish church, which in summer shades the road leading towards Cavour and Saluzzo with its ancient canopy.
Parco di Villa Carrara, San Martino in Colle
There is a road that runs through the hills from Pescia to Capannori, in the province of Lucca. Along this road, in the locality of San Martino in Colle on the border with Gragnano, lives one of the most spectacular oaks in Europe — an enormous downy oak (Quercus pubescens, though some believe it to be Quercus robur, or pedunculate oak). From the road, one crosses the hilltop to the iron cross of San Martino, descending through several bends to the dirt track that leads to this magnificent tree, one of the most photographed in Europe despite being surrounded by nothing but a fence, with no signs or other protection. This mighty tree has lived here for 600 years. Its branches stretch out 40 metres and hang heavily downward. Legend has it that sabbatical rites were performed around this tree. It is also said that the branches bend towards the ground precisely because witches used to dance upon them. From the end of the century onwards it was renamed Pinocchio's Oak, as many believe it to be the very tree mentioned in his book by Carlo Collodi (who did in fact spend his childhood holidays here). It is to this tree that the puppet is hanged, and it is beneath its canopy that Pinocchio meets the cat and the fox, after leaving the house of the Blue Fairy, which the author says is not far from the tree. The municipality of Capannori, with the collaboration of the Wwf, obtained its inclusion in the list of landscape heritage assets from the Tuscany Region.
Pian del Quercione, Massarosa
This is one of the most celebrated olive trees in Italy, and it is found in Massarosa in the locality of Pian del Quercione (in the province of Lucca). It has a circumference of 10.6 metres, even though the trunk is completely hollowed out inside, in a horseshoe shape. Yet the root system is a single one, which nourishes all its parts in a single embrace. Its age is estimated at between 800 and 1,500 years. The first person to write about it was the writer Georg Christoph Martini in his Viaggio in Toscana (1725–1745), in which he describes in detail his encounter with this olive tree, with some fifteen olive pickers working on it simultaneously — who, upon climbing the tree, left their thirty clogs at its foot.
Frascati, Villa Falconieri
"Villa Falconieri, gleaming in the shade of the thousand-year-old oak… Whoever comes to Frascati finds the air agreeable, but the wine it produces even more so." So ends the dialect poem "Frascati mia" by Renzo Martinoli, a poet born in the Castelli Romani and devoted admirer of its hills, its vineyards, and the villages perched on the heights. Among the beauties and glories of this charming town, renowned the world over above all for its wine, stands its most significant natural monument: the magnificent oak that embraces one of the gates of Villa Falconieri, whose park stretches uphill from the town. There is no one from Frascati who does not know the Quercia del Cancellone, so named for its unique characteristic: one of its large branches passed through the opening of the great gate, spread out beyond it, and embraced it. The human monument and the natural one merged into a single whole, with the latter enveloping and incorporating the former. Sadly the enormous branch was cut, but the oak is still there, with its massive, low and heavily leaning trunk.
Villastrada
The gigantic olive tree (Olea europaea) in the area of Villastrada, Castiglione del Lago (province of Perugia), has a trunk circumference of 12 metres. According to various estimates, it may have been planted around the fifth century BC, which would give it the venerable age of 2,500 years.
Eremo di Sant'Elia in Curinga
This magnificent tree (Platanus orientalis) is located in the province of Catanzaro, Monte Carmelo, beside the Eremo di Sant'Elia in Curinga. It is the largest living plane tree in Italy: the circumference of its trunk is 20 metres.
Fallistro
High up on the Sila plateau, they have stood for centuries like guardians of the ancient, remote Calabrian lands. These are the giants of Fallistro, also known as the "giants of the Sila": at least 50 specimens of Calabrian black pine (Pinus nigra calabrica), true monumental trees bearing witness to times gone by, to empires, wars and conquests.
Parco dell'Etna
Lu Castagnu di li Centu Cavaddi is a tree thousands of years old, located in the Parco dell'Etna in the municipality of Sant'Alfio (CT), which features it on its civic coat of arms. It gets its name from the legend that its canopy is so vast it was used by Giovanna D'Aragona to shelter her hundred knights during a storm. Various botanical authors have estimated its age at between two and four thousand years, and according to the thesis of Turin botanist Bruno Peyronel, it could be the oldest tree in Europe and the largest in Italy. It was the subject of one of the earliest acts of nature conservation — if not the very first of its kind — in Sicily (21 August 1745, act of the "Tribunale dell'Ordine del Real Patrimonio di Sicilia"). Bound up with stories and legends, it has been described by visitors over the centuries, studied by various botanists and visited by many illustrious figures in past eras; in 2008 it was recognised by Unesco as a "messenger of Peace".
Santo Baltolu di Carana
The patriarch of all olive trees: S'Ozzastru, the thousand-year-old wild olive of Santo Baltolu di Carana, in Luras (now in the province of Olbia-Tempio, formerly in that of Sassari). It stands in the ancient region of Gallura, on the shores of Lake Liscia, in the municipality of Luras. About a dozen kilometres from the centre of Luras, beside the church of San Bartolomeo, the ancient wild olive grows in one of the most rewarding parks in the country to visit (albeit with a paid entrance, a wholly token sum). Standing before it, one immediately senses being in the presence of something truly extraordinary: at its base the tree has a circumference of 20 metres, its height is around 14 metres, and its imposing canopy casts shade over several square metres. The most incredible aspect, however, concerns the age of the plant: according to some studies, S'Ozzastru is between 3,000 and 4,000 years old (the era of the Egyptians), which would make it one of the oldest trees in all of Europe.
