Lago d'Orta
June 2022

A short recap of a nice summer holiday in Italy. As always, I took a lot of pictures, especially of nature. Here are some of them.
The most beautiful lake of Italy
Lago d'Orta is considered to be the most beautiful lake of Italy. It is located in the north of the country, in the Piedmont region. It is a small lake, but it is surrounded by beautiful hills.

Lago d'Orta

Mrs. Loth

A coypu that swam by each night
The lake was a very welcome cool down after a hot day in the relentless Italien sun. We spent a lot of time there, swimming and relaxing during the afternoons. The water was very clear and full of fish and crayfish.
Quiet and hot villages
The villages around the lake were very quiet and peaceful. As soon as you left the busy lake area, the relaxing Italian rural environment took over and tourists were nowhere to be seen.

Blazing hot sun

A quiet village
Riserva naturale Palude Brabbia
The Riserva naturale Palude Brabbia is a nature reserve in the north of Italy. It is a large wetland area with a lot of birds and other wildlife. We visited the reserve two days in a row, right at sunset. We had to get up around 4am, but it was very much worth it!

Kingfisher, slightly suspicious of camera clicking...

Kingfisher, slightly suspicious of camera clicking...
We have seen a lot of gorgeous wildlife in the reserve. There were some good lookout-points and we were able to get some nice shots of the birds.
We saw the most spectacular animals the second morning. A group of wild boars came out of the woods and started to eat the grass. They were very close to us, but they didn't seem to notice us.

The unmistakable leader

Little hop

Lots of fighting going on
The boars had one very dominant leader. He was the biggest and he was the one leading the whole group.
There was a lot of fighting going on between the boars. They were very aggressive and they were fighting for dominance. It was a very impressive sight to see. The sight was however also frightening, you wouldn't want it heading towards you...
Perfect holiday
We had a great time in Italy. Especially the nature was stunning. The lake was a big magnet for all kinds of animals. We also saw a couple of water snakes, but I felt the pictures weren't good enough to show them here.
The Riserva naturale Palude Brabbia was a great place to visit. We saw a lot of wildlife and we had a great time there. If we ever would be going back, it would be closer to the reserve and with a single wish to see the (often active) Osprey.

One of the many honey buzzards we saw

Beautiful scenery all around

Clearing skies after a thunderstorm