"Nature, that once ruled unopposed, is now confined to the last few spaces where the animal and vegetal species which survived the upsets caused by man on the territory still find the conditions to keep on surviving.
They are small isles in the middle of the sea of human activities, where the flora, such as Palinuro's primrose, Edelweiss, Lady's slipper, Nebrodi's fir, and the fauna, such as Marsica's brown bear, Golden eagle, Monaca seal, Wolf and Otters still reproduce even though their survival is threatened.
The continuous assault of man to their already limited territory, the isolation and the fragmentation of the habitats seriously threaten their existence" ".
This is how the description of one of the most important preservation interventions begins: the "Bioitaly" inventory "of the last isle of nature where the castaways of a planet that once conciliated human presence and nature diversity are to be saved".
La Francesca is integral part of Site IT8050040 of Bioitaly, among the "Coastal cliffs of Infreschi and Masseta coast". And other two sites practically border the Village area.
Our motto is a wood by the sea. The wood existed far before La Francesca. We succeeded in preserving it at best, respecting both flora and fauna. And anybody who comes to La Francesca immediately notices it.
All the interventions we made and we will do are aimed at respecting our precious condition.
We have already talked about our choice of avoiding the cut of high trunk trees and to keep the wood in its best conditions.
When arriving at La Francesca, you are immediately welcomed by a gigantic centuries-old olive tree making a hole in the roof of our management offices. This causes some small infiltration when it rains a lot, and the roots have removed some tiles.
But that olive tree is one of our symbols and we willingly accept some drop of water knowing that we saved an exceptional tree.
During the years we also undertook to return to the original vegetation, first of all by eliminating the plant that were not local, which for different reasons had been planted in the past. For example, for the consolidation of the slopes along the road, we replaced eucalyptuses with Spanish broom.
It was a delicate but important work that we are doing with the utmost care.
 |
On the Punta Garagliano, in fact, a typical low Mediterranean maquis is present. The microclimate is different form the one of the Village. Ground is little and insolation high. Any intervention may damage a particularly beautiful and delicate environment. This is a partial list of the plants you may find at La Francesca: |
sea fennel (Crithmum maritimum); Palinuro's primrose (Primula palinuri, very rare); dianthus rupicola; statice (Limonium sp.); candy tuft (Iberis semperflorens); wall germander (Prasius majus); rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis); mastic tree (Pistacia lentiscus); myrtle (Myrtus communis); spurges (Euphorbia dendroides); holm oak (Quercus ilex); carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua); Spanish broom (Spartium junceum); Gasparrini's broom (Genista ephedroides); savin (Juniperus phoenicea); sea daffodil (Pancratium maritimum); cork oak (Quercus suber); phillirea latifolia; smilax (Smilax aspera); bramble (Rubus); cerris; thyme (Thymus capitatus); heather (Erica multiflora); rock rose (Cistus salvifolius, incanatus, monspeliensis, creticus); wild olive (Olea europea); pubescent oak (Quercus pubescens); strawberry tree.
If, when you come back to La Francesca, you find that a tree has been cut, do not think that we do not practice what we preaches: a wood to live well also needs to be cultivated.
Cultivation means pruning (which is not visible because the tree puts out new shoots better than before) and sometimes cutting ill trees or trees that, due to the excessive closeness with other ones, may limit the growth of all the others.
Un bosco fitto e naturale è l'ideale casa per un enorme numero di animali; innumerevoli sono le specie di uccelli. Tra quelli osservati si possono segnalare:
Sardinian warbler (Sylvia melanocephala); blackcap (Sylvia cantillans); nightingale (Luscinia megarhyncos); hoopoe (Upupa epos); golden oriole (Oriolus oriolus); cuckoo (Cuculus canorus); bee-heater (Merops apiaster); redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus); stone-chat (Saxicola torquata); turtle dove (Streptopelia turtur); wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe); whinchat (Saxicola rubetra); raven (Corvus corax); blue rock-thrush (Monticola solitarius); swift (Apus apus); pallid swift (Apus pallidus); herring gull (Larus argenteus); black-headed gull (Larus ridibundus); dipper (Cinclus cinclus); peregrin falcon (Falco peregrinus); buzzard (Buteo buteo); goatsucker (Caprimulgus europaeus), woodlark (Lullula arborea); tawny pipit (Anthus campestris): red-back shrike (Lanius collurio)
and many others that will be too lengthy list. Also nocturnal birds of prey, such as tawny owl (Strix aluco), barn owl (Tyto alba), owl (Asio otus) and others are frequent.
Also mammals are present in a great and well-assorted number.
If you walk along the alleys in the evening you may listen to a peeping coming from the trees. These are not birds but hazel mice and dormice, nocturnal rodents that live on the trees.
It is hard to see them (they are very shy), but you may certainly hear them; sometimes we find the nests and shelters where they live during hibernation.
But also marten and stone-marten often appear and, sometimes, they can also be observed from the houses.
And in the higher part of the wood also traces of hares and badgers have been found.
A so well preserved environment and the presence of great quantities of possible food (acorns, carobs, olives and other) may obviously be a perfect ground for the growth of rodents.
If tree rodents such as dormice and squirrels are nice and welcomed, the presence of rats and similar would be less pleasant.
But at La Francesca we eliminated them with two measures, both respecting the environment.
The first measure is the complete control of abandoned waste. We already talked about it, but the accuracy and care with which it is eliminated are essential.
For this reason, we ask for the maximum collaboration of our guests: please do not leave rubbish around.
Egyptians called Bast(et) the cat goddess. It was considered a sacrum and precious animal because it killed mice and did not eat wheat.
We took the lesson of the Egyptians and we keep a large colony of cats. Well fed and introduced in La Francesca environment, our cats freely wander among the houses.
We award them with great quantities of food (there is a person charged with feeding them also on winter's Sundays), and they accurately make their job.
They attack mice at ground and let the animals living on the tree live and thrive.
Cars |
In progress |
Environment index |
Home La Francesca |
