The Frattona Woods Natural Oasis

The Bosco della Frattona (Frattona Woods) is a 19-hectare natural oasis just outside the city of Imola that extends along the valley of the Correcchio torrent (a tributary of the Sillaro). It’s a ‘Managed Natural Reserve’, meaning that it’s a protected landscape in which farming is prohibited.

Founded in 1984, its name comes from the word fratta, i.e., a place covered by brambles and other thorny shrubs. The area is part of the outcropping of the ‘yellow sands’ of Imola, coastal marine deposits along the edges of the Apennines.

A route within this nature reserve makes it possible to visit the central part of the woods, which is populated by numerous types of bushes and rich undergrowth, a natural habitat for squirrels, dormice, bank voles, hares, foxes, common weasels, roe deer and seven species of bats.
Species of rare birds that only live in this type of habitat are found in the reserve’s mature forests, including European green woodpeckers and great spotted woodpeckers.

Find out more on the Oasis website