The Rio Gardello trail
Nature walk along the Rio Gardello river
The nature and geology of the Salsominore valley are well represented by the nature walk along the Rio Gardello, particularly the stretch from the Saline Farnesiane to the La Maestà farm and from there to the new Millepioppi science centre, crossing the valley floor that separates the Costamarenga hill from the Salsominore hill.
The path winds gently downhill, between 150 and 125 metres above sea level, and provides a unique experience of environmental education, introducing you to the lush nature of the Stirone and Piacenziano Park.
Here, you encounter the disciplined nature of cultivated fields and coppice forests rich in oaks, downy oaks, hornbeams, willows, poplars, manna ashes and, where the soil contains more clay, turkey oaks.
The herbaceous species are also noteworthy, including anemones, snowdrops, primroses, dogtooths and some varieties of wild orchids. The micro-environment that characterises the brook is populated by a rich and diversified fauna that includes several of the 239 animal species recorded in the adjacent Parco dello Stirone.
In particular, the fauna typical of agro-ecosystems, simplified compared to natural environments, can be found here: there are hedgehogs, moles, hares, pheasants, quail, turtle doves, goldfinches, larks, wagtails, stonechats, and corncrakes, as well as cuckoos, owls, grey crows and magpies.
In ancient times, the area around the brook was not productive, due to the salt deposits and crusts that formed spontaneously through evaporation of the salty-bromine-iodine water that rose from the subsoil to ground level, thanks to gaseous emissions, which made the fields sterile.
As evidence of this, crystallised deposits of bitter-tasting salt have been found in this area, at depths varying between 2 and 3 metres above the valley floor.
Legend has it that salt has been mined in this area since pre-Roman times (tribe of Celati Gauls), and that there were numerous salt-water wells dug here in Roman times.
For this reason, the Rio Gardello path could be identified as one of the ancient roads built by the Romans to transport salt, but there are no documents attesting to this.
Trekking trails
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Routes of varying difficulty, length and duration.