Woodland in the Italian Countryside

I recently spent a week exploring Toscana and Piemonte in Italy, driving around the countryside and taking in the beauty of these regions. I lived here in a previous life, some 15 years ago, and in my recollection there weren’t too many wild places. My expectations to find wilderness were understandably low, but I was pleasantly surprised to encounter pockets of nature and beautiful soundscapes in many places.

Compared to other parts of Europe I’ve visited, the agriculture in these regions seems more careful and environmentally sound. Vineyards and olive tree groves are interspersed with wildflower meadows and little pockets of woodland. Organic wineries abound, and modern elements like mechanised agriculture contrast heavily with old approaches like the use of natural fertilisers or terraced vineyards. Land is not fenced so animals can move around freely, and countryside roads are one-lane affairs that call for low speed travel even if in a vehicle.

There’s one other parameter that can help assess sustainability – soundscapes. Not easy to achieve without a before and after set of examples, but still worth looking at. While there is a fair bit of man-made sound permeating everywhere, biodiversity levels seem great and the number of species heard is surprisingly high. Don’t take my word for it though. Listen to these recordings and compare them to areas you’re familiar with. I have several recordings from the UK on my channel and they are much more limited in terms of species numbers. While some of that is due to the difference in latitude, many species have been driven away from the British Isles by development and habitat destruction. That does not seem the case in the parts of Italy I’ve seen.