Partly snow-covered slope in Val Cervara, an old-growth beech forest, Abruzzo, Italy
Partly snow-covered slope in Val Cervara, an old-growth beech forest, Abruzzo, Italy (© Bruno D'Amicis/Minden Pictures)
Europe's oldest beech forest
Listen closely. Is that whistling you hear coming from a chamois, that great-antlered species of goat-antelope? Could it be the howls of an endangered wolf echoing off the mountainside? Or the bellowing of the Marsican brown bear, one of only 50 or so left on Earth? Most likely it's just the cold November wind blowing through this, the oldest beech tree forest in all of Europe. Hard to believe that this vast stand of primeval forest is just a two-hour drive east from Rome's busiest airport.
© Bruno D'Amicis/Minden Pictures