S.T.I.N.A. is the Italian acronym for (in translation) ‘Territorial System of Naturalistic and Environmental Interest’. It constitutes a vast protected area that extends in the central-western part of the region. It is mainly structured in three homogeneous territories from an environmental point of view: the Selva di Meana, a hilly complex covered with oak woods included in the municipality of Allerona, the ‘Anello di Allerona’ (Ring of Allerona), a path that criss-crosses the entire surface and can be covered in about 5 and a half hours, and the protected area of Melonta-Bosco dell’Elmo, a hilly complex positioned on the right flank of Monte Peglia, with its majestic century-old holm oak. The small village of San Venanzo is also part of the S.T.I.N.A. Its Parco Volcanologico (Volcanological Park), enables you to go 300,000 years back in time and imagine this territory when it was surrounded by three active volcanic craters, hundreds of metres wide. Recently recognized as a World Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO, the above-cited Monte Peglia preserves within it a prehistoric fossil deposit dating back to some 700,000 years ago, one of the oldest in Italy.
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