The Foresta Umbra
Ten thousand hectares of beech half an hour from the beach.
The Foresta Umbra lies on the Gargano plateau, between seven and nine hundred metres, and covers about ten thousand hectares. The name does not come from Umbria but from the Latin umbra, shade, and it is apt: under the beech canopy the light barely reaches, and in August the temperature is ten degrees lower than on the coast.
The strange part is the altitude. In southern Italy beech normally grows above a thousand metres; here it comes down to three hundred, because the sea keeps the humidity high all year. Some of these stands have never been felled, and since 2017 they belong to the Unesco site of Europe's ancient beech forests.
What there is to do
At the visitor centre there are a small natural history museum, an enclosure with fallow deer and an artificial lake with rowing boats: it is the destination for children. From there a dozen marked paths set off, from two kilometres upwards, crossing the forest without serious climbs. In spring more than sixty species of wild orchid flower here.
How to get there
From Vieste you climb in half an hour on the road to Monte Sant'Angelo; from Peschici and Vico del Gargano it takes the same. The road that crosses the forest is narrow, twisting and covered in leaves: you go slowly, not least because the deer really do cross. There are no campsites inside the forest, but the visitor centre has a picnic area.
It is best done in the morning with a return to the sea in the afternoon, or the other way round on days when the coast is too hot. The facilities close at dusk, and in winter snow can block the road.