Visit Gran Paradiso National Park
The Gran Paradiso National Park is to the south-west of the Valle dAosta region of north-west Italy. It was the first national park to be established in Italy.
It is the wilderness and beauty of the Gran Paradiso National Park that is the main attraction - it contains a great deal of stunning mountain and valley scenery, interrupted by glaciers, flower-strewn meadows and crashing streams.
The park is broadly in three valleys - Cogne, Valsavarenche and Val di Rhemes. It is the first of these - Valle di Cogne - which is most accessible and the most popular with walkers.
Several short walks leave from Cogne, and guided walks that introduce the incredible range of flora and fauna in the Gran Paradiso National Park are also available. One popular short walk leads to the waterfall at Lillaz, a little way east of Cogne. The region around Valnontey to the south of Cogne also has shorter walks offering easy access to the dramatic scenery.
One particular noteworthy feature of the park, between Cogne and Valnontey, is the Paradisia alpine garden. Along with the other large amount of wildlife in the park there are also thousands of ibex and chamois, but for much of the year these remain above the treeline and you may well not encounter them during a visit.
Note that if you wish to climb Gran Paradiso itself you should start at Pont in the Vasavarenche valley.
The most popular activities in the Gran Paradiso National Park are hiking, climbing and, in the colder months, cross-country skiing.