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In winter, the Prategiano Agriturismo and Riding Center in Tuscany offers a very special ride: A trail ride through the Nature Park Diaccia Botrona. Experienced horseback riders can join the group with their own horses or with the horses of the Riding Club. The reserve is located in Maremma Tuscany Italy just south of Castiglione della Pescaia. The best period for a visit runs from October to May, when you can witness the show of the arrival of thousands of migratory birds and their overwintering. The Province of Grosseto has installed walkways and observation huts to facilitate the visit to the protected area and bird watching. The reserve includes the marsh and the stretch of pine forest enclosed between the marsh and the road, letting out the coastal dune, which looks untouched and beautiful. The area was a wide bay used by Romans as harbor. Following the formation of a dune strip, the bay got isolated and became a big lake, which little by little began to fill up and ended by becoming a large freshwater marsh. From the Isle of Clodia the horseback riders have a striking overall view of the entire reserve. Towards north you can see meadows, channels, clearances and sparse reed thickets, while to the west the sea is concealed by the strip of coastal pine forest. In the last years, the freshwater marsh has partially become a salty lagoon. For this reason, the vegetation landscape has radically changed in the past fifteen years and the large stretches of reed thicket that were the feature of the marsh have made room for more salt-loving plants such as rush, glasswort and sea lavender. Very important are the remains of the hygrophyte trees that once surrounded the entire marsh and that now survive with a few specimens of ashes and elms, tamarisks and willows. Among the migratory of overwintering birds, we cite the wonderful flamingos, the glossy ibis, the wild goose, the crane, the hen harrier and the white heron. The many thousands of ducks that stop there consists mostly of mallards, teals and wigeons. The intersection strip between the marsh and the pine forest is characterized by periodically flooded meadows, stopover for flocks of snipes, red shanks and greenshanks. The pine forest is formed by monumental umbrella pines that create a unique landscaping effect with the undergrowth of thriving Mediterranean maquis. The pine forest is where the egret and the grey heron, joined in a big garzaia on the highest branches of the age-old pines, the roller, the hobby and the rare great spotted cuckoo nest. If you plan a horse riding holiday in Italy, come to the Prategiano Agriturismo and join the special rides offered by the Riding Club.
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Tuscany, Italy, Maremma, horse, horseback, riding, holidays, hotel, agriturismo,
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