Nature in Guardavalle
A vertical territory: from sea level to the 1,100 metre Serre mountains in a few kilometres, with protected dunes, badlands and a wild torrent valley.
0-1,100 m
the territory's altitude range
4.1 km
of coast with protected dunes (SCI)
>10 m
the drop of the Assi waterfall
2-3 hrs
the torrent-valley trek
From the sea to the mountains
Guardavalle's territory climbs from the Ionian Sea to the woods of Elce della Vecchia, at about 1,100 metres, inside the Serre Regional Natural Park. In between: historic olive groves sloping towards the coast, citrus orchards, and valleys carved by the Assi and Lunari torrents and the Patèlla stream.
This verticality is the area's real natural wealth: in a single day you can swim below the dunes and walk through a mountain holm-oak wood.
The dunes and the scrub
Behind the beach run the coastal dunes, protected as an EU Site of Community Importance: they host Mediterranean scrub and prickly pears and separate the shore from the promenade. It is a fragile habitat, ever rarer on the Ionian coast: cross only at the marked passages and never step on the vegetation.
The badlands
Behind the coastline, rain-carved clays form the Guardavalle badlands, an almost lunar landscape of crests and gullies that together with the beach makes up the protected site. In summer the town's events programme runs guided walks in the Gurna area: the best way to see them up close.
The local sea turtle
Guardavalle's shoreline is a nesting site of the Caretta caretta sea turtle: nests are monitored and in some stretches the beach is cleaned by hand, without machines, to protect them. Hatchings come in late summer.
If you find a fenced-off patch of sand, watch from a distance: no lights at night, no umbrellas planted nearby, no noise. It is this beach's most important rule.
The Assi valley and the waterfall
The Assi torrent cuts a wild valley between Guardavalle and Bivongi: clay gorges, holm-oak and cork-oak woods, water that comes and goes with the seasons. The riverbed trek is of moderate difficulty, two to three hours, on paths that are not always marked: bring hiking shoes and, if you do not know the area, a local guide.
In its upper course, at Pietra di Princi, the torrent forms the Guardavalle waterfall, also known as the Pietracupa falls: a drop of over ten metres with a natural pool where people swim in summer. You reach it on the Arcadia and Assi trails, on foot or by mountain bike, passing the ruins of the old Pietra Cupa settlement.
Towards the Serre
Climbing higher you enter the oak, beech and chestnut woods that cover the upper part of the territory, up to Elce della Vecchia. From here the Serre park continues towards Ferdinandea and the Stilo forest, with centuries-old beech woods and CAI trails: the hiking side of the holiday.
Day trips nearbyProtected habitats and torrent paths change with the seasons and with floods: ask locally before setting out and leave no trace.
Sleep a few steps from the beach
Casa Morello is our seafront B&B: apartments of 80 or 160 square metres, made for families and groups.
The B&B