The Lombard Ticino Valley Nature Reserve www.parcoticino.it

Ticino River is 248 km long, rises from the Swiss glaciers of the Lepontines Alps at the Novena valic and flows in the Lake Maggiore, of whom is the main tributary and the sole emissary.

In Italy, the Ticino River is protected by two management agencies, one in Lombardy and the other in Piedmont. Its entire route from the Sesto Calende bridge where it leaves the Lake Maggiore to the Becca bridge where it joins the Po River, is 100 km length and is the largest river reserve in Europe.

The geological history of the reserve dates back to the Pleistocene Age and the glaciers that then covered nearly all the Po Valley. When the glaciers receded to the Alps, the material they left behind over millennia originated the present soil. In this valley, in the 8th century B.C. on the Bronze age, the prehistoric man appeared, as the Golasecca Culture testifies.

Over the centuries the Ticino River has served as a communication route between Milan, and the Po Valley, and the Switzerland and therefore the North Europe.

Ticino River is also named Light Blue River. The river bed is mostly made from gravel and sand and in the water that comes from Lake Maggiore there are very few suspended particles, so when it joins the Po River at the Becca bridge we can see a remarkable difference in the colour of their waters, as the water of the Ticino is much clearer. Also, the presence of natural springs, which provide the river with clean and oxygenated subterranean water limit the impact of pollution and the activity and the controls of the Park ensure a good quality of the river's water, thus allowing bathing and the use for agricultural and industrial purposes.

Despite the massively built-up area that surrounds it, the Ticino River is relatively intact. In the woods on the hillside terraces along the river, some trees of the ancient valley forest, such as elms, nornbeams and black poplars, are still present. There are also willows, white poplars, black alders, chesnut, Scotch pine and some exotic species imported from America, such as locust tree and black cherry.

The entrance to the reserve are numerous as well the excursions.

In the Varese district, the municipality of Arsago Seprio, Besnate, Cardano al Campo, Casorate Sempione, Ferno, Gallarate, Golasecca, Lonate Pozzolo, Samarate, Sesto Calende, Somma Lombardo, Vergiate, Vizzola Ticino take part in the Lombard Ticino Valley Nature Reserve.