Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

The Orbetello Lagoon Oasis has its entrance on the old Aurelia, state road 1 at kilometer 148.300, southbound lane, in the locality of Ceriolo III, between Albinia and Orbetello, in the province of Grosseto. The gate opens directly onto the state road and has to be taken heading south: coming from Rome you find it on the right, coming down from the Argentario you have to reverse direction at the first useful junction. The entrance cannot be reached on foot or by bicycle, and that's no small detail: it means that the car, the bus or the taxi is the only way to get to the visitor center. From September 22 to May 10 the oasis opens on Saturday, Sunday and holidays from 9:00 to 16:00, with last entry at 14:00. From May 11 to September 21 you enter only with a guided visit, on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at 17:30, a time that in September slides to 16:30 to follow the sunset. The guided visit must be booked by 13:00 the day before, at 388 4231098, which also answers on WhatsApp, or at oasiorbetello@wwf.it. The oasis is closed from December 24 to 26, from December 31 to January 1 and on all days of weather alert issued by the Tuscany Region. The ticket is paid at the entrance and the rates, with the reductions for children and the conditions reserved for members, are published on the official WWF site: it's the only source to consult before you leave, because they change with the seasons. Closed shoes are required, and it's worth bringing binoculars. Dogs are not allowed in, not even on a leash, and the reason is obvious when you walk 20 meters from a colony of terns.

From Rome it is a little under two hours by car. From here on you'll find all the rest: the geography of this anomalous lagoon, the three trails, the nine hides, the birds you really see here month by month, the history of the protection, the fishing, the bottarga, and the places worth a detour within a radius of 20 kilometers. If you are building a weekend in the Maremma starting from the capital, the page of tourist attractions helps you fit the stops together.

Getting to the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

The southern Maremma is one of those areas that seem close until you look at them on a map. From Rome to the entrance of the oasis it is about 160 kilometers, almost all on the Aurelia. State road 1 is not a highway: it has fast dual-carriageway stretches and single-carriageway stretches with at-grade turns, traffic lights and tractors. The real travel time, on a winter Sunday morning, is an hour and 50 minutes. On a Saturday in August, with the traffic toward the Argentario and the ferry to Giglio, it can climb to a good two and a half hours. The classic mistake is to count the kilometers and not the roundabouts.

By Car to the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

Leave Rome by Via Aurelia or the Grande Raccordo Anulare, take the SS1 toward Civitavecchia and continue without turning off. After Tarquinia, Montalto di Castro and Capalbio, the state road runs alongside the Giannella tombolo and the lagoon begins to open on the left. Kilometer 148.300 comes shortly before the junction for Orbetello: the entrance is marked by WWF signs, but they are small and the speed on the state road is high, so it's best to set the navigator to Ceriolo and slow down in good time. Those traveling the opposite way, that is from Grosseto toward the south, find the access on the wrong lane and have to continue to the next junction to reverse direction: crossing the center line at that spot is forbidden and dangerous. The visitor center parking is unpaved, unattended, and in high season it fills up: arriving 20 minutes before the time of the guided visit is a good compromise.

By Train and Then Getting Around

The reference station is Orbetello Monte Argentario, on the Tyrrhenian line served by regional trains. From Roma Termini the trip takes between an hour and 40 minutes and two hours and a quarter depending on the train. The problem begins afterward: from the station to the entrance of the oasis there are a few kilometers of state road with no sidewalk, and the rules explicitly forbid access on foot and by bicycle. Those arriving by train must therefore plan for a taxi or a rental vehicle. The Albinia and Talamone stations serve other parts of the municipality but don't solve the last-mile problem. For an organized group the reasonable solution remains the bus, which can stop in the wide spot in front of the gate.

Practical Advice on Logistics

If you come from Rome for the day, don't make the mistake of betting everything on the oasis. The guided visit lasts a little over two hours and leaves you half a day free: fit it together with Orbetello town, with the Feniglia or with the archaeological area of Cosa at Ansedonia, which is about 20 minutes away. The worst way to use this lagoon is to look at it from the window while rushing toward Porto Santo Stefano.

Hours, Tickets and Booking for the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

The seasonality of this oasis is the reverse of that of almost all the other attractions on the coast. In winter, when the Argentario closes half its restaurants, the oasis works at full capacity: from late September to early May you enter on Saturday, Sunday and holidays from 9:00 to 16:00, with last entry set at 14:00. It is the right window, because it coincides with wintering: the western lagoon in January hosts tens of thousands of waterbirds and the hides of the ornithological trail are open.

In summer, instead, the formula changes completely. From May 11 to September 21 access is allowed only on a guided visit, on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, with departure at 17:30. In September the departure moves up to 16:30. It's not a commercial choice, it's a thermal and biological one: at noon in July, on the lagoon shore, you come close to temperatures that make staying in the hides unbearable, and the nesting wildlife needs to be disturbed as little as possible. Booking must be done by 13:00 the day before, by phoning or writing on WhatsApp to 388 4231098 or by writing to oasiorbetello@wwf.it.

How Much It Costs to Enter the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

The rates are shown on the official WWF site and include a full price, a reduced price for children above a certain age and free entry for the youngest, as well as special conditions for members of the association. They change with the season and with the type of visit, guided or independent, so the exact number should be read on the official page the day before you leave. The ticket is paid at the entrance. For school groups and tour groups the WWF manages dedicated packages, which include the educational activity at the Environmental Education Center, and which have to be arranged well in advance.

The Closures to Mark on the Calendar

The oasis does not open from December 24 to 26 and from December 31 to January 1. To these are added closures for weather alerts issued by the Tuscany Region, which in the Maremma are not rare between October and March: libeccio wind and intense rain make the trails impassable and standing under the pines dangerous. Before getting in the car on a doubtful day, a phone call settles it.

What the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis Really Is

Here we need to agree on a point that confuses many visitors, and that is worth clarifying right away: under the name Orbetello Lagoon Oasis, different entities coexist. There is the oasis managed by WWF Italy on the northern shore of the western lagoon, which is the one you visit with a ticket. There is the Orbetello Lagoon Nature Reserve, a Tuscan regional protected area that covers 1,533 hectares in total. There is the state nature reserve, born from the ministerial decrees of the 1970s. And there is the European special protection area, which encompasses the body of water and its shores. They are overlapping layers, with boundaries that don't coincide and with different managing bodies: the Tuscany Region, which since 2015 directly administers the regional reserves, WWF Italy for the western portion, the State for the state part.

The visitor doesn't have to untangle the administrative skein, but needs to know one thing: the WWF gate doesn't give access to the whole lagoon. It gives access to the richest and most protected part, the one where the hides are placed at the right points and where disturbance is kept to a minimum. The rest of the lagoon is looked at from outside, from the dam, from the waterfront promenades of Orbetello, from the tomboli.

The Birth Date and the Bird That Caused It

The history of the protection begins with a discovery. In the late 1960s Fulco Pratesi and Hardy Reichelt identified in the lagoon a small nesting colony of black-winged stilts, a very elegant wader with enormous red legs that in Italy had been considered gone as a nesting bird since the beginning of the 20th century. Up to that point the lagoon was free hunting ground and very much frequented. The report set WWF Italy in motion, which urged the then Ministry of Agriculture and Forests: in 1971 an oasis of about 800 hectares was born, the first protected perimeter of the area.

The rest came by degrees. In 1977 the area was recognized as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, the 1971 treaty that protects the wetlands of the planet. In 1985 the Patanella wood was added to the oasis, a relict cork oak grove on the eastern side. In 1998 the actual nature reserve was established, which brought the protected surface to 1,533 hectares. In parallel the area has been classified as a special protection area and proposed as a site of community importance, thus entering the European Natura 2000 network.

Why 1,533 Hectares Is a Lot

To give a measure: the Orbetello lagoon extends over about 27 square kilometers of water surface, and is one of the largest coastal wetlands of the central Tyrrhenian. The average depth is about one meter, the maximum doesn't exceed two. It's a shallow brackish basin, warm in summer and cold in winter, that behaves like an enormous plate: whatever goes in, stays. This makes it extraordinarily productive and extraordinarily fragile, and explains both the number of birds and the recurrence of environmental crises.

The Geography of the Orbetello Lagoon, an Almost Unique Case

Look at the southern Tuscan coast on a map and you'll understand why geographers have built textbooks on it. Monte Argentario was an island. The currents and the debris carried by the Albegna and Osa rivers built over millennia two tongues of sand, the tomboli, that welded the island to the mainland. Between the two tongues a stretch of sea stayed trapped: that is the lagoon. A third strip of land, a central isthmus, extends from the coast toward the Argentario and on it stands the historic center of Orbetello. A double tombolo with a settlement built on the middle tongue is a configuration that is not repeated in Italy.

The Giannella Tombolo

It is the northern strip, about six kilometers long, that connects the mainland to the Argentario passing in front of Santa Liberata. On one side it has the open sea and the beaches, on the other the western lagoon. The entrance of the WWF oasis is on the inner side of this band, together with the Casale della Giannella. The Giannella is also the most urbanized part of the two tomboli, with beach clubs, campsites and houses: the protection concerns mainly the lagoon strip, where the back-dune vegetation survives.

The Feniglia Tombolo

The southern strip, also about six kilometers, joins the hill of Ansedonia to the Argentario and is entirely the Duna Feniglia State Nature Reserve, 474 hectares established in 1971. Neither cars nor motorcycles enter here: the dirt road that runs it from end to end, built between 1928 and 1940, is open only to pedestrians and bicycles, with cross trails about every kilometer that lead from the lagoon side to the beach. It is a straight line under the stone pine forest, one of the most beautiful and easiest walks on the Tyrrhenian coast.

The Feniglia wood is not natural in the naive sense of the term. Until the 18th century the dune was covered by Mediterranean woodland. Then intensive cutting stripped it and the wind began to erode the sand, with the concrete risk that the tombolo would open and the lagoon would be transformed. Systematic reforestation started in 1910 and produced the pine forest we see today: about 320 hectares of stone pine in the inner band, while the first band toward the sea preserves the xerophytic species of the dune, sea holly, sea lily and helichrysum. Anyone walking under those pines is walking inside a century-long work of forestry engineering.

The Feniglia also has fallow deer, introduced in the 1950s from Castelporziano. They are not an ornament: by browsing the undergrowth they keep invasive vegetation in check and reduce the fuel load that would feed fires. Seeing them at dusk, among the red trunks, is one of the images visitors take home.

The Leopoldine Dam

The artificial embankment that connects Orbetello to the Argentario bears the name of Grand Duke Leopold II and dates from 1842. Before it there was only a precarious ford: with the dam the town was welded to the promontory and the lagoon was cut into two basins, the western lagoon to the north and the eastern lagoon to the south. That division, born for reasons of transport, has very heavy ecological consequences: the two basins have behaved since then as two distinct bodies of water, with different water exchange, different salinity and different problems. The birdwatcher notices right away, because the two halves host different concentrations of birds on the same day.

The Canals, and the One That Was Never Finished

The lagoon communicates with the Tyrrhenian through three artificial canals. The Fibbia canal, also called Saline, opens on the Giannella tombolo near the mouth of the Albegna. The Nassa canal, also on the Giannella, at Santa Liberata. The Ansedonia canal, on the Feniglia tombolo, at the southeastern end. A fourth canal, the Pertuso, was designed and never completed. Three mouths for 27 square kilometers are few, and this is the knot of the whole environmental question: the exchange with the open sea is insufficient, the water stagnates, and in hot summers the lagoon suffocates.

The Trails of the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

The oasis is walked along three main itineraries, to which is added a short educational loop around the Casale della Giannella. They are not demanding routes: the elevation gain is nil, the surface is packed, the difficulty is zero. What they ask for is patience and silence, which are less widespread qualities than physical endurance.

The Ornithological Trail and the Nine Hides

It is the classic itinerary, the best equipped, walkable in the cold season from September to April, either freely or with a guided visit. It runs along the shore of the western lagoon and distributes nine observation hides, built of wood and screened toward the water with horizontal slits. The logic of the hides is simple and brilliant: the bird doesn't see the human silhouette, so it doesn't move away, and you observe it at distances that in the open would be unthinkable. Flamingos at 50 meters, great egrets fishing in front of the slit, coots passing a few steps away.

Some hides look at the inner pools, others at the open lagoon, still others at the reedbeds. They change completely according to the wind and the hour: with the mistral the birds move close to shore, with the libeccio they concentrate in sheltered waters. The operating rule, for those with two hours, is to stop at least 15 minutes in each hide before judging it empty. Nine hides walked in a rush are worth less than three hides listened to.

The Patanella Wood Trail

The Patanella wood joined the oasis in 1985 and is the forest soul of the reserve: a wood of holm oaks, cork oaks and heathers, with manna ash and downy oak in the cooler zones, that descends to the shore. A botanical route runs through it, equipped with some observation hides, open to visitors all year either freely or with a guided visit. It is the part of the oasis that also suits hot days, because you walk in the shade, and the one where the ratio of noise to silence reverses: in the pine forest you hear woodpeckers, wood pigeons, the jay, and in spring the nightingale. The Patanella cork oak grove is a relict, that is a surviving fragment of a cover that was once much more extensive, and for this reason it has a conservation value that goes beyond the pleasure of the walk.

The Hiking Trail from Ceriolo to Patanella

The third route links the Ceriolo visitor center to the Patanella wood. It is the longest, crosses different environments, from the lagoon shore to the scrub to the woods, and is done all year exclusively with a guided visit by reservation. It is the right choice for those who have already seen the hides at least once and want to understand how the mosaic of environments works that makes this lagoon so rich. Ask expressly about availability when you book: it isn't offered every day.

The Casale della Giannella, the Butterfly Garden and Casa Pelagos

Around the Casale della Giannella runs a small nature trail that takes half an hour and concentrates the educational part. Here are the exhibition on wetlands and the butterfly garden, a flowerbed designed with the nectar plants that attract Lepidoptera: on mild days in May it's a coming and going of swallowtails, nymphalids and cabbage whites that kids follow better than any explanatory panel.

The Casale also hosts Casa Pelagos, an interactive museum opened in August 2023 and dedicated to the sea and its great inhabitants, with its own seasonal hours. And the Environmental Education Center, named for Aurelio Peccei, housed in a structure of Spanish origin from the 17th century: meeting room, teaching spaces, thematic exhibitions. Three more recent farmhouses serve as guest quarters, with about 60 beds, a dining room and a kitchen, active by reservation for groups. Part of the energy of the structure comes from a photovoltaic system. The complex is managed by WWF Italy, which is also the owner of a portion of the area.

The Birds of the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

This is the reason you come here, and it's best said without beating around the bush: the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis is one of the three or four places in peninsular Italy where a beginner can see in one morning, without effort and without particular luck, 20 species of waterbirds that elsewhere would take weeks. The avifauna is the most important component of the reserve's fauna and the one that has justified every single protection measure.

The Black-winged Stilt, the Symbol

Himantopus himantopus is a black and white wader with very long pink legs, out of proportion to the body, that let it walk in shallow water and look for invertebrates in the mud. It was considered extinct as a nesting bird in Italy since the early 1900s, and it was its rediscovery at Orbetello that gave rise to the protection. Today it nests regularly in the inner pools of the oasis. It can be observed well between April and July, when it defends the nest with distraction flights and insistent shrill calls: if you hear it screaming, you are too close, and the right thing to do is back away.

The Pink Flamingos

Phoenicopterus roseus is the image that has made this lagoon popular beyond the circle of enthusiasts. It winters at Orbetello with contingents that reach thousands of individuals, and it was in the 1990s that the first cases of nesting in continental Italy were recorded. The pink color isn't a pigment of its own: it derives from the carotenoids of the small crustaceans it feeds on by filtering the mud with that curved beak held upside down underwater. Young birds are grayish and take years to color. The best moment to see them is between November and March, with raking light, from the hides that look at the open water.

A professional's warning: the flamingo is the most photographed and most misunderstood bird of the lagoon. From far away it seems motionless, in reality it is a nervous animal that raises its neck and moves away as a group at the first abrupt movement. Anyone who leaves the hide to get closer ruins the observation for everyone else and gets a worse photograph.

Herons, Little Egrets and Spoonbills

There is an important colony of Ardeidae in the oasis. The great egret, almost a meter tall, has become regular in winter. The little egret is present all year. The gray heron fishes along the canals. The cattle egret, once a reported rarity, is today seen also in the meadows behind. The spoonbill, with its spoon-shaped bill, is observed sifting the shallow water with sideways head movements. The avocet, black and white with an upturned curved bill, frequents the same pools as the black-winged stilt and is another of the symbol waders of the Mediterranean salt pans.

The Osprey

Pandion haliaetus has been nesting again in the province of Grosseto since 2011, inside the Maremma Park and the Diaccia Botrona Nature Reserve, after decades of absence from the peninsula. At Orbetello the project has involved installing artificial nesting towers. Watching it hunt is a spectacle worth the trip on its own: it stops in hovering flight at 20 or 30 meters above the water, then lets itself drop with its talons forward and re-emerges with a mullet in its feet, which it orients head-first to reduce drag in flight. In the Mediterranean the nesting pairs number fewer than 100: every individual counts.

The Northern Bald Ibis, the Impossible Return

Geronticus eremita is a black bird with metallic reflections, a bare head and a long curved bill, extinct in Europe for about 400 years. The Waldrappteam project, started in Austria in 2002, has rebuilt a migratory route from scratch by teaching it to the birds: captive-born birds are trained to follow an ultralight aircraft, which leads them south along a route that later generations learn and repeat on their own. The wintering quarter chosen for this population is Tuscany, and the Orbetello lagoon is part of it. Seeing a northern bald ibis grazing on a Maremma meadow means watching a piece of the history of European conservation in motion.

Wintering Ducks and Waders

From November to February the lagoon fills with dabbling ducks. The shoveler, with its spatula bill. The wigeon, which really does whistle and whose flocks produce a sound recognizable hundreds of meters away. The pintail, very elegant, with elongated central tail feathers. The teal, the smallest of the European ducks, which takes off in a sudden, almost vertical lift. With them thousands of coots, grebes, cormorants perched with wings open on the poles to dry their feathers. Among the waders you see lapwings, plovers, sandpipers, curlews.

Rarities and Species of Conservation Interest

The list of rare presences is long and has to be read with due caution: they are not daily sightings, they are reports that over the years have built the scientific value of the site. The lesser spotted eagle, Aquila pomarina, and the white-tailed eagle, Haliaeetus albicilla, appear among the most prestigious species recorded in the area. The lagoon is classified as a key site for the slender-billed curlew, Numenius tenuirostris, a wader close to extinction and perhaps already gone. In the late 1990s small colonies of two terns settled in Tuscany for the first time, the little tern, Sternula albifrons, and the common tern, Sterna hirundo, which continue to breed in the protected area.

In the regional-interest site the following are also reported. The great spotted cuckoo, Clamator glandarius, nesting. The lanner falcon, Falco biarmicus, irregular wintering. The marsh harrier, Circus aeruginosus, present all year and possible irregular nesting. The ferruginous duck, Aythya nyroca, migratory and irregular wintering. The shelduck, Tadorna tadorna, nesting and wintering. The lesser grey shrike, Lanius minor, nesting. The stone-curlew, Burhinus oedicnemus, nesting. The bittern, Botaurus stellaris, migratory and wintering. The spectacled warbler, Sylvia conspicillata, nesting and presumably irregular. In summer bee-eaters are added, with their tropical colors and the gurgling call you hear before seeing them.

The Flora of the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

The vegetation of the protected area is read in bands parallel to the coast, and each band answers to a different physical parameter: the salinity of the soil, the distance from the sea, the exposure to salt wind, the height of the water table.

The Coastal Pine Forest

The forest band is dominated by the maritime pine and the stone pine, the pine-nut pine with the umbrella crown. They are largely plantations, the result of 19th- and 20th-century reforestation done to fix the dunes and curb erosion. Under the crowns grows an undergrowth of scrub that the fallow deer, where present, keep effectively in check.

The Sclerophyllous Mediterranean Scrub

The hard-leaved vegetation includes Phoenician juniper and big-berry juniper, phillyrea, Mediterranean buckthorn, smilax, mastic and myrtle. Further inland the holm oak and the cork oak take over, accompanied by manna ash and downy oak in the cooler and damper stations. It is a tall scrub, in some places impenetrable, that in spring smells of rockrose and in autumn fills with berries: mastic and myrtle are the winter pantry of thrushes and blackbirds.

The Dune and the Psammophilous Species

In the sea-facing part of the adjacent area the psammo-halophilous vegetation survives. The mobile dune is almost totally eroded, but characteristic presences resist like the sea crucianella, the sea bindweed with its lilac flowers that come out of the bare sand, the sea daffodil, the white lily that blooms in August on the dunes and that is protected. They are plants that live in extreme conditions: mobile sand, salt spray, violent temperature range, little fresh water. Walking on them kills them, and it is the reason the trails are marked and the raised walkways must be respected.

The Relict Cork Oak Grove and the Halophytes

In the eastern part survives a relict cork oak grove that is part of the Patanella wood: cork oaks have a thick, spongy bark that makes them resistant to fire, and it is one of the reasons this patch of woodland has reached us. Along the lagoon shores, finally, grow the communities typical of salty soils: glassworts, sea lavender, rushes, low and seemingly poor communities that are in fact among the most specialized in Europe and that color the shores red in autumn.

Reptiles, Amphibians, Mammals and Fish of the Orbetello Lagoon

The attention of observers goes almost entirely to birds, and that is understandable. But the faunal heritage of the area is broader. Among the reptiles are the European pond turtle, Emys orbicularis, which can be seen sunning on logs emerging in the canals, and Hermann's tortoise, Testudo hermanni, the Mediterranean land tortoise, which in the scrub of the Feniglia and Patanella finds one of the last suitable environments on the Tuscan coast. Both are species of community interest and in sharp decline elsewhere.

The amphibians and mammals of the coastal dune complete the picture, with the small fauna that the visitor rarely sees but that holds up the whole chain: green toads, hedgehogs, foxes, badgers, and the marten reported in the wood. The fallow deer of the Feniglia are the most visible.

The waters of the lagoon host conspicuous fish populations, of both conservation and economic interest. Sea bass, sea bream, mullet and eels are the species that count. Once shrimp and mollusks were also fished in quantities no longer reached today. Fish is the reason Orbetello exists, and the reason the lagoon has always been considered a resource even before a landscape.

The Working Lagoon: Fishing, Bottarga and Smoked Eel

Since the times of the Etruscans and then the Romans the economy of Orbetello has rested on the exploitation of the lagoon and on fishing. The trade, once handed down from father to son in fishing families, is today run by a joint-stock company that employs just under 100 people. The fish is processed on site or sold in many Italian markets and abroad.

Mullet Bottarga

Bottarga is obtained from the ovarian sacs of the mullet, extracted whole, salted, pressed and left to age. The result is an amber, compact block that is grated over pasta or cut in thin slices with a drizzle of oil. Orbetello bottarga is a niche product, very different from the Sardinian in flavor and consistency, and is bought in town at the outlets of the fishermen's cooperative. A rule of common sense: you buy the whole piece, not the powder in a jar, because it is the only way to know what you are eating.

The Smoked Eel

It is the signature dish of Orbetello. The eel is smoked, with the addition of spices and chili, according to a process that here is called sfumatura. The result is dark, fatty, intense meat, eaten at room temperature with bread and nothing else. It's not a product for every palate and I won't pretend otherwise. But it is the true flavor of this lagoon, and anyone who comes all this way and eats a generic fish dish they could find in any beach town has gotten the trip wrong.

The Fragile Balance of the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

This lagoon is a high-risk environment, and it's worth understanding why. The water exchange with the sea happens through only three artificial canals, and it isn't enough. To the reduced supply of seawater has been added for decades the inflow of discharges rich in nitrates and potassium salts from the agricultural crops of the basin. The result is eutrophication: the nutrients make the algae explode, the algae consume oxygen when they decompose, and in summer the shallow, warm water reaches anoxia. The dystrophic crises have produced in the past fish die-offs of considerable size and are the reason the office of the Commissioner of the Orbetello Lagoon was established.

To the problems with the water are added other factors that the management plans list without indulgence: growing human disturbance, the increase of herring gulls that prey on the colonies of terns and waders, the conflict between fishing activity and fish-eating birdlife, the summer tourist pressure on the tomboli, and abandoned industrial areas with contaminated soils that weigh on the basin. The fact that all this coexists with tens of thousands of wintering birds says how productive this lagoon is and how little margin it has left.

In our view the aware visitor is part of the solution and not of the problem. An oasis that receives paying visitors is an oasis that has budgets, staff, wardens and the ability to influence public decisions. An empty oasis is an oasis that disappears from the debate.

When to Go to the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

Winter, the Best Season

From December to February the lagoon reaches the maximum of presences. Wintering ducks, flamingos, white herons, waders: it's the period when an hour in the right hide produces more observations than a week in August. The winter light, low and warm, is also the best for photography. Dress as for a mountain day: in the hides you don't move and the damp cold of the lagoon gets into your bones.

Spring, the Season of Song

March and April bring the return migration and the start of nesting. The black-winged stilt, the terns, the bee-eaters. The Patanella wood is at its peak bloom and the trails can be walked in shirtsleeves. It is the season with the best ratio between number of species and comfort.

Summer, with Different Rules

From May 11 you enter only on a guided visit in the late afternoon, and the choice makes sense. At 17:30 the heat starts to give way, the light becomes lateral, the animals resume activity. It's also the hour when the lagoon offers its most spectacular colors, with the Argentario backlit. Don't expect the big winter numbers: expect quality of light and nesting species.

Autumn, the Migration

From September to November the migrants bound south pass through. It is an unpredictable period and for that reason a thrilling one: one day can be modest and the next gift you a species missing for years. From September 22 the weekends reopen with continuous hours and the ornithological trail becomes accessible again.

The Orbetello Lagoon Oasis with Kids

It works, on two conditions. The first is to choose the short route around the Casale della Giannella, with the wetlands exhibition, the butterfly garden and Casa Pelagos: they are three concrete, visual activities that hold their attention without asking for stillness. The second is to bring a pair of binoculars for each, or at least one for every two kids. A child without binoculars in hand is bored in three minutes, a child who manages to focus on a flamingo alone remembers that morning for years.

On the ornithological trail the reasonable minimum age is around seven, because the hides ask you to stay still and silent for long periods. The WWF organizes structured educational activities for schools at the Environmental Education Center, with the possibility for groups to use the guest quarters. A stroller on the ornithological trail is awkward but not impossible on the initial stretch. On the hiking trail it is to be ruled out.

Accessibility and Gear for the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

The surface of the main trails is packed and flat, without significant steps, but it remains a natural surface that becomes muddy after rain and dusty in summer. The accessibility conditions for wheelchair users should be checked directly with the visitor center before you leave, because they depend on the stretch and the season: the number is the same as for bookings.

On gear there are two obligations and one recommendation. The obligations: closed shoes, always, and no pets. The recommendation: binoculars. A 10x42, that is 10 magnifications and 42-millimeter objectives, is the right compromise for the lagoon, because it keeps light in the low hours and stays stable handheld. Those who photograph have to plan on long focal lengths: under 400 millimeters equivalent, the flamingos stay pink dots. Add a hat, water and an insect repellent between May and September. At the entrance there is a picnic area.

What to See Around the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

Orbetello, the City on the Isthmus

The historic center of Orbetello rises on the middle tongue of land that extends into the lagoon, and it is one of the most particular urban walks in Tuscany: whichever side you walk, the water is a few tens of meters away. Stretches of walls of Etruscan origin remain, later reworked, and the Spanish 16th-century fortifications. The Polveriera Guzman, of 1692, is the most significant military monument of the Presidi period and today hosts museum functions: in 1860 Garibaldi resupplied with ammunition there during the expedition. The cathedral preserves its late 14th-century Gothic facade. One of the Spanish mills planted in the water of the lagoon also survives, the last of a series that counted nine: the isolated silhouette in the lagoon has become the emblem of the city.

The Feniglia Tombolo on Foot or by Bicycle

Six kilometers of straight dirt track under the pine forest, closed to motor traffic, with the fallow deer and the beach a few steps away. It is done in an hour and a half on foot, in half an hour by bicycle. It's the best way to understand how a tombolo is made, and the cheapest: entrance to the state reserve is free.

Ansedonia, Cosa and the Tagliata

Ansedonia closes the lagoon to the southeast. On the hill is the archaeological area of Cosa, a Latin colony founded in 273 BC and abandoned during the 14th century, with polygonal walls, the forum and the temple of Jupiter. At the foot of the promontory runs the Tagliata Etrusca, a channel cut into the rock that served to prevent the silting up of the port by exploiting the currents, and the Spacco della Regina opens, a natural fissure extended by artificial galleries. The Torre della Tagliata, 16th-century on a medieval base, was inhabited by Giacomo Puccini, who stayed and worked there.

Monte Argentario

The Argentario promontory closes the lagoon to the west and is worth a day of its own. Porto Santo Stefano on the north side and Porto Ercole on the south side are the two historic ports, both guarded by Spanish fortresses. From Porto Santo Stefano the ferries leave for Giglio Island, which with a crossing of about an hour becomes an excursion that can be done in a day.

The Other Oases of the Coast

20 kilometers to the south, toward the Lazio border, is the WWF Oasis of Lake Burano, the first Italian WWF oasis, opened in 1967: a brackish coastal lake separated from the sea by a dune ridge, with characteristics different from Orbetello and a partly complementary avifauna. Anyone with two days does well to see both. Heading down toward Rome, the Lazio coast offers the WWF Oasis of Macchiagrande, the Macchiatonda Nature Reserve, the Castel di Guido Oasis and, farther south, the Circeo National Park with its coastal lakes.

The Maremma Hinterland

Anyone with an extra day goes up toward Capalbio, a walled village half an hour from the lagoon, or continues toward Pitigliano, the city built on tuff. On the way back toward the capital the excavations of Vulci, the necropolises of Tarquinia with the painted tombs and the center of Tuscania deserve a stop.

A curiosity about the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

The best curiosity about this place isn't about a rare bird but about a miscalculation: the oasis exists because someone, in the last century, had declared extinct an animal that was actually still there. The black-winged stilt was considered gone as a nesting species from Italian territory since the beginning of the 20th century. Then, in the late 1960s, Fulco Pratesi and Hardy Reichelt found a small nesting colony in the Orbetello lagoon. Not a pair passing through: an established colony, in an area that at the time was open hunting ground.

The consequence was immediate and out of proportion to the size of the discovery. WWF Italy urged the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests to act, and in 1971 an oasis of about 800 hectares was born, which in the following years would grow to today's 1,533. It's worth pausing for a moment on that mechanism, because it's how half of Italian conservation began: one exact scientific fact, produced by two people with binoculars, moved an administrative boundary and removed forever from hunting one of the most important wetlands of the Tyrrhenian.

There's a second layer, just as curious. The black-winged stilt hadn't disappeared because of direct persecution, since it isn't a game bird: it disappeared because the wetlands had disappeared, drained by land reclamation. Its reappearance at Orbetello is therefore proof that the lagoon, though run down, had kept a function the rest of the coast had lost. Since then the black-winged stilt has returned to nest in many areas of Italy, and today it is the oasis's graphic symbol. Of the three or four signs you meet along the birdwatching trail, the one with the pink legs is the birth certificate of everything else.

Something nobody tells you about the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

That in summer, if you show up at the gate in the morning, you don't get in. No travel guide says it with the necessary clarity, and every year dozens of families arrive at 11:00 in July with the swimsuit in the backpack and find the gate closed. From May 11 to September 21 the oasis opens only for the late-afternoon guided visit, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at 17:30, with the earlier departure at 16:30 in September, and the reservation must be made by 13:00 the day before. There's no free summer entry. If you haven't booked the evening before, you don't get in the next day.

The second part of the thing nobody tells you concerns physical access. The rules specify that the oasis entrance can't be reached on foot or by bicycle. It sounds like a quibble and it's actually the rule that ruins more trips: anyone who arrives by train at Orbetello and thinks of covering by bike the kilometers of Aurelia that separate them from the gate finds a fast state road with no usable shoulder. You need a motor vehicle, period.

Third thing, minor but annoying: dogs don't get in, in any season and in any form, not even carried in your arms. For a reserve that protects ground-nesting species it's a sacrosanct rule, but you need to know it beforehand, because it means that anyone traveling with a dog has to arrange an alternative. I'll add the requirement for closed shoes, which in summer catches by surprise anyone coming from the Giannella beach in flip-flops. These are three banal pieces of information that nobody highlights and that decide if the day works or not.

My advice for visiting the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

Come in winter, and come with the right wind. The advice has two parts and neither is obvious.

The first part is the season. Anyone planning a trip to the Maremma thinks of May or September. For this lagoon the good season is January. From December to February the western lagoon hosts the peak of wintering birds: dabbling ducks by the thousands, flamingos, great egrets, cormorants, shorebirds. In those months the oasis opens on Saturday, Sunday and holidays from 9:00 to 16:00, with free access as well to the birdwatching trail, so you can stay in the hides as long as you like without the pace of the group. Add that the Argentario in January is empty and prices are a third of August's.

The second part is about the weather, and only those who come back learn it. The lagoon is very shallow, an average depth of one meter, and it reacts to wind like a basin: with the mistral the water piles up on one side and uncovers the shallows on the other, and the birds follow the shallows. Before leaving, check the wind direction and plan around the hides: with a northwest wind the southern ones work better, with the libeccio everything concentrates in the sheltered waters. The second detail is the hour: the light of early morning and that of the last hour are low-angle and reach you from behind if you choose the right side, which means lit birds and not backlit ones.

One last recommendation, against every instinct: stay still. The average visitor walks the nine hides in 50 minutes and sees little. The lagoon works in waves, and the wildlife, when it senses movement, moves away and comes back after a quarter of an hour. Whoever sits in one hide and waits 20 minutes in silence sees three times as much as whoever walks through all of them. Bring a thermos.

Another well-known fact, yet rarely mentioned

That the Orbetello lagoon, as we see it, is largely man-made. Everybody knows it and almost nobody draws the consequences. The Leopoldine dam that connects the town to the Argentario dates from 1842, ordered by Grand Duke Leopold II: before it, it didn't exist, and the two basins we now call the western lagoon and the eastern lagoon were a single body of water. The three channels connecting to the sea, Fibbia, Nassa and Ansedonia, are artificial. A fourth channel, the Pertuso, was designed and never completed. The Feniglia pine forest is a reforestation begun in 1910 on a dune that the 18th-century cutting had stripped bare and that was collapsing. The fallow deer that live there were introduced in the 1950s from Castelporziano.

The consequence that gets overlooked is simple: this environment isn't preserved by leaving it alone, it's preserved by managing it. Water exchange depends on three mouths dug by humans, and if they aren't maintained the lagoon suffocates. The dune depends on a planted forest. The balance of the undergrowth depends on an imported herbivore. The osprey nesting towers are artificial structures. Even the pools where the black-winged stilts nest have regulated water levels.

The well-known fact, then, is that here the word nature means something different from what it means in an Apennine forest. It means a system built over the centuries by the interaction of natural sedimentation, grand-ducal engineering, land reclamation, reforestation and modern conservation. It's a cultural landscape in every respect, and that doesn't make it less precious: it makes it more fragile, because a landscape that depends on maintenance degrades the exact moment the maintenance stops. The summer dystrophic crises, with algae consuming the oxygen and fish dying, are the periodic reminder of this truth.

The right photo to take at the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

It's not the flamingo close-up. Everyone does the flamingo close-up, it requires 600 millimeters and in most cases produces a washed-out pink bird on gray water. The right photo at the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis is another one: the flock in low flight over the water, in the last hour of light, with the dark silhouette of Monte Argentario in the background.

The composition works for a precise geographic reason. From the hides on the northern shore of the western lagoon, the promontory lies to the west, so the sun sets behind it. An hour before sunset the light turns orange and low-angle, the shallow water reflects the sky, and the mass of the Argentario flattens into a silhouette that gives depth to the frame. If at that moment a flock takes off, you have three elements in one shot: color, movement and scale. In summer the guided visits start at 17:30, or at 16:30 in September, which is exactly the right window.

The technical part, for those who want it. Shutter speed no slower than 1/1000 of a second if you want frozen wings, or deliberately drop to 1/50 and look for creative blur, which works very well on a flock. Underexpose by one stop, because the pink of flamingos burns out with almost nothing and the red channel saturates before the others. Focal length: between 200 and 400 millimeters equivalent holds the whole flock, which is what you need. A tripod in the hides is often cumbersome, better to rest the lens on the edge of the slit with a rag or a glove.

The second photo worth taking home isn't inside the oasis: it's the Spanish mill of Orbetello isolated in the water, shot from the town waterfront at blue hour, with the city lights coming on. Third option, for those with a bicycle: the straight stretch of the Feniglia under the pines, photographed from the middle of the dirt track, with the trunks converging toward the far end. It's a cliché, but it's a cliché that works because that straight stretch really does look like that.

A few important events that happened here in history

The Orbetello lagoon has seen events that rarely make it into nature guides, and that nonetheless explain the landscape better than any description of the vegetation.

The first event is the Roman founding of Cosa, in 273 BC, on the Ansedonia hill that closes the lagoon to the southeast. It was a Latin colony controlling territory taken from the Etruscans of Vulci, with a port below that the Romans defended from silting up by cutting the Tagliata into the rock, a channel that used the currents to keep the mouth clean. The city was abandoned for good during the 14th century, and what remains, polygonal walls, forum, Temple of Jupiter, is now an archaeological area open to visitors.

The second is the birth of the State of the Presidi. In 1557 Charles V established on this stretch of coast an independent Spanish dominion, with Orbetello as its capital, that included the Argentario, Porto Ercole, Porto Santo Stefano, Talamone and Ansedonia. It lasted until the unification with Tuscany in 1860 and 1861. The walls, the fortresses, the Guzman Powder Magazine built in 1692, the mills planted in the lagoon, are the material legacy of those three Spanish centuries, and they are the reason Orbetello looks unlike any other Tuscan town.

The third is the death of Caravaggio. In 1610 the painter, who was heading up the coast toward Rome hoping for a papal pardon, found himself stuck in this stretch of Maremma among the marshes and the tomboli, and died there of hardship and malarial fevers. Tradition places the end at Porto Ercole. The Feniglia tombolo, with its marshes that were unhealthy then, entered the story forever. Anyone who walks today under the reclaimed pine forest crosses a place that killed four centuries ago.

The fourth is 1842, the year of the Leopoldine dam, which redrew the hydrography of the lagoon and the geography of its connections.

The fifth is aeronautical. Between 1927 and 1933 Italo Balbo used the Orbetello seaplane base, on the lagoon, as the departure base for the transatlantic flights: the calm, shallow lagoon was an ideal water runway for seaplanes taking off fully loaded. Alongside it stood a hangar designed by Pier Luigi Nervi, destroyed in 1944. Long before the seaplanes, in 1860, Garibaldi had passed through here and stocked up on ammunition at the Guzman Powder Magazine during his campaign.

The sixth is environmental, and doesn't have a single date. Until the 1960s the lagoon, a stopover and nesting area for dozens of migratory species, was open to hunting. In 1971 comes the oasis, in 1977 the recognition of the Ramsar Convention, in 1985 the annexation of the Patanella woods, in 1998 the establishment of the nature reserve. In less than 30 years a hunting ground turned into one of the most protected wetlands of the western Mediterranean: in the history of Italian conservation it's a case study.

Who has passed through the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

Fulco Pratesi, first of all. The founder of WWF Italy is tied to this lagoon directly: it was he, with Hardy Reichelt, who spotted in the late 1960s the nesting colony of black-winged stilts that triggered the establishment of the oasis in 1971. Many of his nature plates come from field observation in areas like this one. If today you enter through a gate and not from a hunting blind, it's thanks to him too.

Aurelio Peccei, after whom the Giannella Environmental Education Center is named, was not a naturalist but a manager and a thinker: founder of the Club of Rome, promoter in 1972 of the report on the limits to growth that for the first time brought the idea of finite resources into the world economic debate. The dedication isn't decorative: it links this lagoon to one of the most important insights of the 20th century.

Grand Duke Leopold II of Lorraine passed through in the most concrete sense, because he modified the lagoon: the 1842 dam that bears his name is the work of his Maremma reclamation program, the great hydraulic enterprise that between the 19th and 20th centuries changed the face of this coast. That the dam then created the water-exchange problems we deal with today is the irony of every territorial engineering intervention.

Caravaggio passed by here dying, in July 1610, among the tomboli and marshes of the Feniglia, as mentioned: the malarial Maremma stopped him a few days' travel from Rome.

Giacomo Puccini stayed a little further south, in the Tagliata Tower at Ansedonia, which overlooks the same stretch of coast and the same waters: he worked there and found the isolation he was looking for.

Italo Balbo passed by here by airplane, or rather by seaplane, leading between 1927 and 1933 the Atlantic cruises that departed from the seaplane base built on the lagoon, which in the 1930s made Orbetello one of the most cited names in international news.

Giuseppe Garibaldi passed through Orbetello in 1860, stocking up on ammunition at the Guzman Powder Magazine, and the town owes one of its Risorgimento memories to this episode.

Finally, every winter, thousands of travelers with no name pass through here and come from much farther away: ducks from Scandinavia and Russia, flamingos from the Camargue and Spain, northern bald ibises following a route taught to them by an ultralight. The list of famous figures is nice, but the real story of this place is written by them.

Frequently asked questions about the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

Where is the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis?

The Orbetello Lagoon Oasis is located on State Road 1 Aurelia at kilometer 148.300, southbound lane, in the locality of Ceriolo III, between Albinia and Orbetello, in the province of Grosseto. It faces the inner side of the Giannella tombolo, on the western lagoon, and is managed by WWF Italy.

How far is the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis from Rome?

The Orbetello Lagoon Oasis is about 160 kilometers from Rome, covered almost entirely along the Aurelia, State Road 1. The real driving time, depending on traffic conditions on this road that is single carriageway in places, is a little over an hour and a half.

When is the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis open?

From late September to early May the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis can be visited on Saturday, Sunday and holidays from 9:00 to 16:00, with last entry at 14:00. From May 11 to September 21 the oasis instead opens only for the late-afternoon guided visit, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, with departure set at 17:30.

What is the best time to see birds at the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis?

The best time for birdwatching at the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis is winter, from December to February, when the lagoon reaches its maximum numbers of wintering ducks, flamingos, egrets and shorebirds. One hour in the right hide in this season produces more sightings than a week in summer.

Is the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis suitable for a visit with children?

Yes, the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis works well with children on two conditions: choose the short route around the Casale della Giannella, with the exhibition on wetlands, the butterfly garden and Casa Pelagos, and bring a pair of binoculars for each child, or at least one for every two children.

Are the trails of the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis wheelchair accessible?

The surface of the main trails at the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis is packed and flat, with no significant steps, but it remains a natural surface that turns muddy after rain and dusty in summer. The actual accessibility conditions for those who get around in a wheelchair should be checked directly with the visitor center before leaving.

Why was the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis created?

The Orbetello Lagoon Oasis was born in 1971 after, in the late 1960s, Fulco Pratesi and Hardy Reichelt spotted in the lagoon a nesting colony of black-winged stilts, a species considered gone as a nesting bird in Italy since the beginning of the 20th century. That discovery led to the establishment of the protected area.

Visiting the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis as a group

The lagoon works well as a stop on a group itinerary, as long as you treat it for what it is: a nature visit that requires slow pacing and small numbers. The observation hides hold few people at a time, so a coach of 50 has to be split into staggered subgroups, and the guide has to know the rhythm. WWF directly manages the guided visits by reservation and the educational programs for schools at the Environmental Education Center, with the possibility for groups to use the on-site guesthouse.

For anyone organizing the trip from Rome who needs a professional figure to hold together the transfer, the entry times and a food stop in Orbetello, the professional tour leader service solves the coordination problem. When instead the lagoon is a single stop within a broader itinerary in the Maremma and southern Tuscany, it makes sense to think upstream about the organization of the group trip, because fitting a guided visit at a fixed time around a coach's schedule is exactly the kind of detail that decides how the day turns out.

If you're accompanying foreign guests, keep in mind that English-language documentation on the Maremma is scarce: the best summary for framing the region remains the Tuscany guide in English, which has the merit of also covering the areas outside the Florence, Siena and San Gimignano triangle. For those arriving from the capital who want to understand how to fit a day out of town together with the city's big classics, the annotated list of things to do in Rome helps decide what to sacrifice.

Quick questions about the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

Where exactly is the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

The entrance is on State Road 1 Aurelia at kilometer 148.300, southbound lane, in the locality of Ceriolo III, between Albinia and Orbetello, in the province of Grosseto. It is on the inner side of the Giannella tombolo, facing the western lagoon.

How far is the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis from Rome

About 160 kilometers, almost all along the Aurelia. The real travel time ranges from 1 hour 50 minutes to 2 hours 30 minutes depending on traffic and the season.

What are the hours of the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

From September 22 to May 10: Saturday, Sunday and holidays from 9:00 to 16:00, last entry at 14:00. From May 11 to September 21: guided visits only on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at 17:30, with departure at 16:30 in September.

Do I need to book to visit the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

For the guided visits yes, and it's mandatory to do so by 13:00 the day before, at the number 388 4231098, also via WhatsApp, or by writing to oasiorbetello@wwf.it. In winter the free access to the birdwatching trail doesn't require a reservation, but a confirmation call remains the prudent choice.

How much does a ticket to the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis cost

The rates, with full price, reduced price for children and terms for WWF members, are published on the oasis's official page and should be checked before leaving, because they vary with the season and with the type of visit. The ticket is paid at the entrance.

When are the flamingos at the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

Wintering runs roughly from November to March and is the period with the largest contingents, which can reach thousands of individuals. Some birds stay in other months too, but the big spectacle is in winter.

How long does the visit to the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis take

The guided visit lasts a little over two hours. Anyone entering freely in winter can stay as long as they like within closing time, and to walk the nine hides of the birdwatching trail unhurried you need at least three hours.

Can you get to the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis on foot or by bicycle

No. The rules specify that the entrance can't be reached on foot or by bicycle: access is on a fast state road and you need a motor vehicle.

Can you bring dogs to the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

No, pets are not allowed in any season. The reserve protects species that nest on the ground and the rule admits no exceptions.

What shoes do you need for the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

Closed shoes, mandatory. Sandals and flip-flops are not allowed. In winter, after rain, a pair of waterproof ankle boots is the right choice because the ground becomes muddy.

Do you need binoculars to visit the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

They aren't mandatory but are strongly recommended, and without binoculars the visit loses half its point. A 10x42 is the right model for the lagoon.

How many observation hides are there

The birdwatching trail has nine, spread along the shore of the western lagoon. Other hides are found along the route through the Patanella woods.

Is the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis suitable for children

Yes, provided you choose the right route. For the youngest, the short loop of the Casale della Giannella works, with the exhibition on wetlands, the butterfly garden and Casa Pelagos. For the birdwatching trail the reasonable age starts at seven, because the hides require silence and stillness.

Is the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis wheelchair accessible

The main trails are flat with a packed surface, but the real conditions change with the stretch and the season: check at the time of booking, by calling the visitor center.

Can you take photographs at the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

Yes, and it's one of the main reasons people come. Shooting must be done from the hides and the equipped points, without leaving the paths and without using sound lures to attract birds, a practice that is prohibited and harmful.

Can you use drones

No. In a special protection area with nesting colonies, flying drones is incompatible with the protection of wildlife, in addition to being subject to the general aviation rules.

When is the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis closed

From December 24 to 26 and from December 31 to January 1, as well as on days of weather alert issued by the Tuscany Region.

What is the difference between the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis and the Burano Lake Oasis

They are two distinct WWF protected areas, about 20 kilometers from each other. Orbetello is a brackish lagoon of 27 square kilometers divided into two basins by a 19th-century dam. Burano is a smaller coastal lake separated from the sea by a dune ridge, and it was the first Italian WWF oasis, opened in 1967. The bird populations partly overlap and partly complement each other: anyone who has two days visits both.

What is the difference between the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis and the Duna Feniglia

The WWF oasis is on the Giannella side, is visited with a ticket and at set hours, and is dedicated to watching waterbirds. The Duna Feniglia Nature Reserve, 474 hectares established in 1971 on the southern tombolo, has free access and is covered on foot or by bicycle along six kilometers of dirt road closed to cars, in a pine forest populated by fallow deer.

Is there parking

Yes, an unpaved lot at the entrance, unattended, which fills up in high season. It's best to arrive about 20 minutes ahead of the time of the guided visit.

Is there a picnic area

Yes, a picnic area is set up at the oasis entrance. Food is not consumed on the trails or in the hides.

What is Casa Pelagos

It's the interactive museum opened in August 2023 at the Casale della Giannella, dedicated to the sea and its great inhabitants. It has its own seasonal hours, which should be checked together with those of the oasis.

Can you sleep inside the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

There is a guesthouse built out of three farmhouses, with about 60 beds, a dining room and kitchen, available by reservation and intended mainly for groups and school classes.

How many bird species can you see at the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis

It depends on the season and on patience. On a winter morning an attentive observer easily reaches 20 or 30 species. The overall list of birds recorded in the protected area over the years is much longer and includes rarities of European significance.

Is the food good in Orbetello

Yes, and it's worth aiming for the lagoon's products: grated or sliced mullet bottarga and the anguilla sfumata, smoked with spices and chili pepper, which is the town's signature dish. The sea bass, sea bream and mullet of the lagoon are the base of local cooking.

What is the weather like in winter at the Orbetello Lagoon

Mild by day but humid, with frequent wind. In the hides you stay still for long periods and the perceived temperature plummets: you need layers, gloves and a hat even when the thermometer reads 12 degrees Celsius.

Can you visit the Orbetello Lagoon Oasis in half a day

Yes, and that's the typical duration. Anyone arriving from Rome does well to combine it, on the same day, with the center of Orbetello, the Feniglia or the Cosa archaeological area at Ansedonia.

We close with a recommendation: this isn't a lagoon to look at, it's a lagoon to listen to. Bring the binoculars, sit in the third hide, the one that seems the most anonymous, and stay half an hour without talking. After 10 minutes the coots come back, after 20 a heron passes, and at some point the whole flock of flamingos rises all at once for a reason you'll never understand. It's worth more than any photograph. And if you have to choose just one day of the year, choose it in January: the Maremma in winter is empty, the light is perfect and the water is full of birds.

Article written by the editorial team of TourLeaderPro, contact them for Private/Corporate/V.I.P. Tours and Experiences.

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