This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)

The construction works for this oasis began in 1938, funded by the famous textile entrepreneur Ermenegildo Zegna: the Zegna Oasis is now a huge natural park open to the public, which offers a spectacular view of the Po River Valley and Alta Val Sessera, along the Panoramic Zegna State Road. Such breath-taking view can be enjoyed at its very best in Cervo Valley, while the oasi also includes the hamlet of Trivero (at 2.624 ft above sea level), which still features the Zegna wool mill.
In 1993, this oasis was included into an enhancement project on a large mountain area in the Alps around Biella; in 2014, it received the patronage of the FAI (the National Trust of Italy).

The panoramic road runs across a wonderful landscape, largely shaped by Ermenegildo himself who planted 500.000 conifers and hundreds of rhododendrons and blue hydrangeas.
Among its most beautiful places, there is “Conca dei Rododendri” (“the rhododendron dip”), built in the 1950s and 1960s by Pietro Porcinai and recently rearranged by Paolo Pejrone: it features red beeches, ash trees, meadowsweets, and heather intertwined with several white, pink, red and purple rhododendrons. Then, there’s “Bosco del Sorriso”, a wood traversed by a circular path that allows visitors to discover the bioenergetic benefits of plants on the human body.

In the Zegna Oasis, families, children and sports enthusiasts can truly enjoy themselves plunged into luxuriant nature all year round. “Forest Bathing”, the ancient Japanese health practice, is possible as well: visitors can walk in the woods (between June and September, when the vegetation appears at its very best), to obtain a regenerating effect for the mind and the body – this thanks to an anti-stress action that stabilizes the heart rate and the blood pressure, while strengthening the immune system.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)