Europe's most inspiring national parks

Mount Triglav lends its name to Slovenia's only national park. The origin of the name, which means "three-headed," is disputed. Some attribute it to the mountain's three-peaked appearance from certain angles. Others claim a Slavic deity of the same name has his throne at the summit. If so, he must have a breathtaking view of its forested slopes, and meadows strewn with wildflowers.

Protected for centuries as a hunting ground for Polish and then Russian monarchs, Bialowieza National Park retains the last of Europe's primeval lowland forest. Once under royal patronage, its native bison were hunted to extinction by the early 20th century. But they have since been reintroduced, and several herds thrive in the ancient woodland.

Saxon Switzerland National Park lies on the German border with the Czech Republic. For creative inspiration, you could follow in the footsteps of German romantic painters who captured the park's sculptural rock formations. The Malerweg - or "Painter's Path" - consists of 112 kilometers (70 miles) of hiking trails that lead through otherworldly sandstone columns, crags and canyons.

In Greek mythology, Typhon, father of all monsters, battled with Zeus until the king of the gods trapped him under Mount Etna. The lava that spits and bubbles from Europe's most active volcano might have you believe Typhon is still waiting for his furious revenge. But volcanoes also make for fertile soils, so Etna National Park is home to some of Sicily's lushest, vineyard-scattered landscapes.

More than a million visitors flock to Croatia's Plitvice National Park each year to see its network of 16 lakes linked by waterfalls, and the travertine limestone they have carved into undulating steps. It also provided a dramatic location for the Winnetou films - Germany's own cowboy movies based on the books of Karl May.

A range of the Western Carpathian Mountains, the Tatra Mountains span national parks in Poland and Slovakia. Brown bear, lynx, wolves, chamois and marmots are among the fauna at home in its dense forests and alpine meadows. Its majestic birds of prey - including the lesser spotted eagle - have perhaps the best view of these soaring peaks and glistening lakes.

Walter Scott penned his poem "Lady of the Lake" in Trossachs. Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park provide plenty of inspiration for such an epic. Osprey skim the surface of its countless freshwater lakes in search of salmon, while Iron Age hut circles, standing stones, a Viking graveyard and the remains of crannogs - ancient manmade islands - tell tales of Scotland's distant past.

Gran Paradiso was Italy's first national park, founded in 1920 to protect the Alpine ibex - then on the brink of extinction. Today, visitors have a fair change of spotting the impressively horned goats in the park's elevated meadows. The bearded vulture, reintroduced 100 years after the last of its species was shot in the park in 1912, looks set to become another restoration success story there.