Santo Pietro wood: one of the excursions to do in Catania

Sicily never stops to amaze. It always gives new and particular, sometime surprising. Such as Santo Pietro wood, in the homonymous locality, not so far from Caltagirone. One of the excursions to do if you’re planning a trip in Catania.

The Oriented Natural Reserve Bosco di Santo Pietro extends on a surface of 6.500 hectares. And it’s an extraordinary naturalistic treasure, not only for its flora (in the wood you can recognize three main habitats, the sughereta, the lecceta, and the gariga) but also for its fauna (during the strolls you can admire porcupines, weasels, foxes, wild cats, jays, kestrels and woodpeckers).

Thanks to the mild climate of Sicily, the wood can be visited in every period of the year. But the best are essentially two:

• Spring, when the wood takes the colors of the florescence
• Autumn, when the wood takes the typical hues of this season

Without forgetting the two most beautiful places to see in the Reserve: they are the valleys called fontana del Cacciatore and della Molara.

As said before, Santo Pietro wood it’s in the homonymous locality, about twenty kilometers from Caltagirone. To reach it starting from Catania:

• Take the state road 417 and follow the road signs to Caltagirone
• From Caltagirone, take the provincial road 62 to Santo Pietro
• Once you arrive in Santo Pietro, ask about the entrance of the wood

The trip lasts about a hour and a half by car.

Image source: Flickr.com/photos/kanzir