Valli Cupe - Sila

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Sila

The names used through the centuries referring to this plateau are several: Hile was the Greek one, Silva Brutia the Roman one and many other ones appeared as far as its name turned into the current Sila.

Greeks, Romans and many famous travellers of the past too used to talk about Sila as the wide Italian wood because of the richness characterizing this huge forest, which provided wood, scented pitch and safe places as a refuge to Mediterranean populations. Thanks to its thriving forests Greeks and Romans could have all the wood they needed to build their own fleets. Besides, some important monuments such as St Peter’s Basilica in Rome (known in Italian as Basilica di San Pietro) and St Mark’s Basilica in Venice (known in Italian as Basilica di San Marco) were set up by using the timber coming from Sila.

Here the whole of resources is made richer by the presence of ancient Pedunculate Oaks woods and rare species of plants, amphibians and birds of prey. This is the reason that makes it possible to consider this territory a painting created by nature. As its monumental and secular trees (they are told giants because of their enormous size, such as the Gigante Buono) can prove, the Silan plateau is a real pristine forest, one of the few still existing all around Europe.

Gigante Buono (that stands for "Good Giant") is a Chestnut Oak about 500 years old and more than 8 metres in circumference, which the children attending the Elementary school of Sersale have symbolically adopted taking care of it. Its name comes from the past, when it was part of a wide Sweet Chestnut wood which the local population used to guarantee its own nutrition. At that time, in fact, often flour used to be drawn from chestnuts rather than corn.

Melitani’s Giants (in Italian Giganti di Melitani) can really be considered as natural monuments (they are about 10 metres in circumference): they impress our visitors and tourists both because of their size and because of the historical events which they are related to.

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