Outside Nardo: Porto Selvaggio and Country side

This hike takes you through the Regional Natural Park of Porto Selvaggio and Palude del Capitano as well as the surrounding landscape.

This hike is just over 20 km long and has some very modest elevation difference. As much as possible, track avoids the paved roads and traffic, and take you on forest tracks or unpaved roads through the fields.

The track starts at Masseria "Carignano Grande". Which is rather plain looking farm house. Along the main road, you can find some parking.

From the starting point, you'll pass by the tower "Torre Colombaia" (although I'm not certain about this name). Although it has seen better days, it's still a nice photo and interesting thing to see.

The next 3.5 km, you'll be following a country track until you pass by Masseria "Sciogli" which is being renovated. After a kilometer, you'll pass by Masseria "Nucci" and another tower "Torre Colombaia", which may not be the correct name. When I passed by, it seemed that Masseria "Nucci" is open for customers, but this might be only on weekends, or during the season.

After roughly 2 km, you'll pass by a summer resort. During the high season, you'll find plenty of people at the pool and could stop here for a drink or some food. Outside the season, you'll find everything closed.

When you've hiked almost 8km, you'll reach a larger road (SP 286), which you need to follow for 400 meters only. After that, it's back to the smaller roads. After a brief climb, you leave the road, pass by some agriculture and make it to an open field with a view over the sea.

On the other side of the field, you'll find a stone wall. At the corner, you'll find the most easy point to pass the wall, although there a few other points you could cross further south.

Once you are on the other side of the wall, you enter the reserve and you'll be surrounded by pine trees. The other interesting thing you'll find here is an oddly build road (most likely for logging), which reminded me of the "yellow brick road" from the movie "The Wizard of Oz".

Follow this brick road for 1.5 km, until you reach the main road (SP 286). Follow the road south for 250 meters, until you'll find the track on the other side of the road.

For the next 2 km, you'll follow somewhat larger unpaved roads through the forest, mostly downhill, until you get the bay of Porto Selvaggio. Depending on weather and season, you may find people swimming here and you could also consider a break.

The next 800 meters are quite straight and slightly uphill. Once you reach the highest point, you'll leave the larger tracks and follow a very small track for about 1.5 km.

Here you'll cross the SP 286 once more and continue on the other side on a larger dirt road.

When you've hiked about 17km, you'll come to Masseria "Torre Nova". As far as I can figure out, this used to be a camping site or something like that. There are lots of parking spaces, street lights and on the west side of the masseria, you'll find a rather strange construction. Could be half of a swimming pool or some sort of stand, but I'm not sure. if you have the time and energy, you might want to walk around a bit.

After the masseria, you'll be on a paved road for a short bit, passing by Masseria "Brusca", which would be worth to stop by and take a few pictures.

The last bit of the track, is easy to walk dirt track, except for the last kilometer. which is paved road, leading you back to the parking.

Enjoy the walk and leave a comment.