Preola Lake and Gorghi Tondi Nature Reserve
The Lake Preola and Gorghi Tondi Nature Reserve is a site of great naturalistic interest characterized by a succession of small lakes. The area is a depression of karst origin where rains and time have eroded the chalky ground to form natural lakes, now surrounded by dense marsh vegetation.
Inside the reserve there is Lake Preola, the larger, and the three circular pools of water, the so-called Gorghi Alto, Medio and Basso, surrounded by dense marshy vegetation typical of the slightly brackish Mediterranean coastal ponds. The cords of the marshy vegetation merge with the luxuriant low Mediterranean scrub, which climbs and covers the limestone ridges that precipitate sheer drop in contiguity with the shores of the lakes.
The Nature Reserve is managed by WWF . Inside the area there is a Visitor Center with a multimedia didactic room, and two equipped paths with the relative observatories on Lake Preola and Gorgo Basso.
The observatory on Gorgo Basso can be reached via a path, which can also be followed by people with disabilities, immersed in the luxuriant Mediterranean scrub.
The observatory on Lake Preola makes it is easy to observe different species of aquatic avifauna, especially in the spring period, when some of them have nested among the reeds that surround the shallow waters of the Preola.
To visit the Reserve it is advisable to take the main path that begins in point where the provincial road Gorghi Tondi passes in the middle of the three rounded lakes of karst origin, from which it takes its name. The area can be used all year round but a visit is recommended, upon reservation, during the spring and autumn period, when it is possible to admire the hunting expeditions of the marsh harrier, buzzard, kestrel or the hopping among the plants of the 'hoopoe. Camouflaged among the reeds of the lakes there are also rare specimens of red herons that stop here for a few weeks or you can scrutinize the marsh turtles , a species protected at community level.
