After an arduous upwind flight, an exhausted stork dropped me over Tione in Trento during a snowfall in January 1976. This is how I unwittingly fell upon a notary, with a thing about hunting and a very strict teacher (with a thing about getting her offspring to study) , both in their thirties and both from Ferrara. This unlikely couple had already been blessed with two older daughters with no inkling for hunting but with a good education. The quartet had made it as far as the Alps passing through the Padania fog and the turquoise sea of Sardinia...no wonder they were still a bit confused!
When I opened my eyes and started to sort the various memories (I hadn't started taking photos in those days) I would lie by a window in the sun and look out at the snow-capped mountains while my father, careful not to miss a single movement and oblivious to the icy draught or the cigarette smoke that enveloped my cot, would shoot away at the crows in order to procure fresh food for his eagle owl of dubious origin, it was probably Polish.
That, in a nutshell, is how I grew up, skiing and playing football as well but above all in the midst of shotguns with hunting friends following roe deer and yellow grouse through the vast steep valleys.
When I was just a little older I started travelling, taking in everything I saw and felt on the various hunts around the world like a sponge, at first as a privileged bystander and soon after as a privileged fellow protagonist.
It was hard, especially at that age to break away without cutting oneself off, to strike the balance between wanting to stay out late with friends, the first crushes, a few beers too many and the ever increasing need to set my alarm clock early..very early and set off with my rucksack for an adventure!
In 1992, having been torn away from the mountain and bringing with me this great passion for hunting and nature, I landed in chaotic Bologna as a secondary school pupil. The time had come, sooner than anticipated, to get on with it in a new and apparently unknown world. First I had a little Vespa and then an old mini which were more often than not drawn by an invisible force towards the gullies and nearby gorges of impenetrable woodland. Of course, they weren't the granite of the Dolomites but soon enough I began to feel an irresistible calling towards the hilly environment which I simply could not fight. As soon as I got my first hunting permit, I qualified as a ungulate hunter with selective methods as well as capturing deer and taking part in the night checks of boars,
This is how I found in the nearby Appenines a world that no longer holds any secrets for me: wild open spaces and infinite nature. The goddess Diana beguiled me once and for all drawing me into the secrets of her chestnut grove with an irresistible chant.
Half a lifetime has transpired since then and yet even today as a father of two and a lawyer, as soon as I can, I throw off my work attire in order to be at one with the silence and the greenery.
I have been a member of the Hunting Club (Federcaccia) for 17 years and I am on the board of the Regional Appenine Hunting Club.
My love for hunting, the dogs and the wild animals have always been backed up by photographic accounts. Some of my better shots have allowed me to work with specialised magazines like “Diana”, “Caccia a Palla”,”Migratori Alati”, “il Cacciatore Italiano”, “URCA informa” “il Cacciatore Trentino”and “il Notiziario del Setter Gordon” among others over the past years.
I recently created the 2011 calendar for the Italian Federation of Hunting, I have worked on four teaching publications regarding ungulates. Along with the highly experienced Gianluigi Bocchi and Milko Marchetti's wonderful photographs, we published a collection of stories called “The Valleys of Comacchio – hunting of times gone by.”
Lastly, my pictures can be found on various specialist websites, including Dr Stefano Mattioli's, the “Associazione Italiana Gestione Faunistica” (the Italian Association for Fauna Administration) and Antonio Iannibelli's portal “Provediemozioni” ; with the latter friend and other enthusiasts we have recently founded the cultural association “Fotografi di natura” (Nature Photographers) and the new blog “Italian Wild Wolf”, dedicated entirely to our own wild wolf.
I have recently begun to focus my attention on gathering information about this extraordinary predator.
Sometimes I ask myself if I still possess the desire to show my friends up there in the mountains the marvels with which the nature of Emilia Romagna welcomed me.
