(+39) 0863.399696 (+39) 339.8395335 info@wildlifeadventures.it 
Wildlife Adventures is a nature based Tour Operator. Since 2009 Wildlife Adventures offers nature experiences that support wildlife conservation and at the same time creates economic opportunities for the local communities.
Outdoor initiatives are focused on reaching long-term sustainable goals with a positive impact on people. Genuine nature experiences and encounters with wild animals such as wolves, bears, chamois and golden eagles is a way to educate visitors about the importance of biodiversity and to inspire people to take action to respect nature and coexist with wildlife.
Umberto is a mountain guide entered on the register of Alpine Guides of the Abruzzo Region and a naturalist photographer. He works between Abruzzo and Molise regions where, among the immense beech forests in the mountains or in the meadows, you can still see some extraordinary animal species. At the end of the nineties the encounter with the bears of the valley and the emotion for the first photographs guided him to what has become his job. Growing he has explored and loved these mountains. He is the creator and the director of Wildlife Adventures project and now he tries to convey the emotions he felt when he was young to those who walk along the paths and the mountains of Central Apennines with him. He has published pictures and articles on Oasis, Trekking&Outdoor, DOVE Viaggi, DRepubblica, Speciale “Qui Touring” of Touring Club Italiano. It’s co-author of the project Forestbeat and of the book Il Segreto dei Giganti, to sustain the nomination of the Apennine beech forests as “UNESCO World Heritage Site” Lazio e Molise.
Since she was a child she walked along the paths through the forest of the mountains where she was born. Her curiosity led her to explore and get to know the territory. While listening to stories from older people in the area, Valeria learnt the importance of the local traditions and how necessary it was to preserve traditions and value the past. Her love of nature and for the Abruzzo mountain’s became her passion, which intern became her profession. She is now a nature guide, environmental interpreter and nordic walking instructor, and one of our expert guides in the Italian Apennines.
His story is that of a root giving back the tree: born in Rome, as a child he’d spend all summer next to Sangro river in the village of his maternal ancestors, where a sort of last frontier fascination still emanated from the tales of a few bears left in the wild. Teenage years are the time to firmly be on wolf’s side and getting in contact with Lakota’s culture reshapes his way of life. University years are devoted to forest studies and trees will reveal themselves to be the privileged passepartout to knowledge and beauty. Moving in to his grandparent’s village he’d bring back home his abruzzese root and start working with bees for honey, something he’s still committed to. After being involved in projects and experiences concerned with brown bear research and conservation he eventually qualifies himself as a mountain leader on the register of Alpine Guides of the Abruzzo Region and forest bathing guide. A historical, ecological – and poetical – narration of places and landscapes is in his wheelhouse.
Debora has always been in love with her mountains. Since she was a child, she would listen enthusiastically to her mother and grandmother’s stories about the time spent in Val Canneto and on the Mainarde mountains. Big and old beech trees, bears, wolves and long night crossings made her dream of life in a bygone era: a hard and wild one, but, at the same time, almost like a fairytale. She moved to Rome to study, where she graduated with a Biomedical Engineering degree at the Sapienza University, however, Debora eventually understood how lucky she had been to grow up in Valcomino and that the city life was really not for her, so she decided to come back to her beloved valley. When she came back home, she started breathing again, rediscovering the people and customs she grew up with and started helping those who are trying to bring value to these places. As she worked as a volunteer with the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park, her desire to live and work in fresh air became even stronger which motivated her to become a nature guide, a job which she takes on with great passion and dedication.
Linda is Abruzzese by adoption and Emilian by origin, in both cases from the Apennines; she was born and raised in the heart of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, under the “Pietra di Bismantova”, an unusual rocky mountain that resembles a combination of an African plateau and a giant iron made of sandstone. She always had the privilege of sharing her passions for mountains, nature and travel with family and friends. Geographer and professional educator (social worker), she joined her two spheres of interest by becoming a nature guide, registered in the register of the Abruzzo Region Alpine Guides. She improved her training by collaborating with Natural Reserves, Regional Parks, WWF Oases both in Abruzzo and in Emilia, as well as through the long seasons spent in mountain refuges. She now lives in Pescasseroli, by chance and by choice, where she continues to wander through the woods and mountains, accompanying enthusiastic walkers to discover the park. She loves to discover corners of paradise on her doorstep, and whenever she has the opportunity she escapes to the Gran Sasso, which is her first love.
OUR PURPOSE
The search for a name began in an attic-office, but we could not write anything on our moleskine diary for al long time. We needed a brand to identify the images of the Abruzzo National Park and the search was pleasantly hastened from the request of International Association for Bear Research and Management (IBA). It needed photos and videos on the occasion of 16th IBA Conference, in the autumn of 2005. We were not mischievous and we choosed a tremulous beech leave as a symbol of our adventures in the forests and mountains of Abruzzo region. The success of that adventures and the rarest pictures of Marsican Brown Bear gave us a strong emotional impact and they were very important for the creation of Wildlife Adventures. We changed our brand in 2015, on the occasion of the opening of new offices. Today there are four elements that represent the essence of our outdoor activities.
It miraculously escaped from extinction on the steep slopes of Camosciara at the beginning of 1900. Now there are 2000 chamoises on the tops of Central Apennines and the history of this animal represents one of the most interesting histories of nature conservation. Some chamoises from Abruzzo National Park have been reintroduced on the slopes of Majella, on Gran Sasso and on Sibillini Mountains. Thanks to its extraordinary coat, its magnificent horns, the agility and the elegance of its movements this subspecies (Rupicapra pyrenaica ornata) has been defined as the most beautiful chamois in the world. The Apennine chamois is the symbolic species of Abruzzo National Park and represents our memories, our effort and our sweat for the first reached tops and the satisfaction for our first encounters with the fauna of Abruzzo National Park.
The territory of Majella National Park is characterized by artifacts that have profoundly changed the aspect of the landscape over the centuries. These dry stone huts spread because of the crisis of pastoralism, when it was necessary to find suitable areas for cultivation on the mountains. New cultivable areas were far from the village and the long and arduous work of reclamation of the land from the stones led to the need of a shelter. It was also necessary to dispose stones collected in the fields. Over time, improved techniques led to the construction of buildings with well-defined purposes. So new agro-.pastoral buildings spread, with areas used for milking, for the barn and for a house where to stay with the family during the summer. The Tholos represent our bond with the traditions and the lifestyle of local population.
The Griffon (Gyps fulvus) is a large vulture that can reach a wingspan of 280 centimeters. The Central Apennines represented, before the nineteenth century, a suitable area for its presence, but then it was extinct. Now you can again observe the griffon in the Sirente-Velino Regional Park thanks to a reindroduction project of the State Forestry Corps. It’s very important the presence in the same area of some animals such as bears and especially wolves, because the griffon feeds on animal remains left by the hunting of these large predators. This territory allows us to hope for the success of our new proposals and it represents an extraordinary passageway towards the wide areas of Gran Sasso and the wild valleys of Majella.
The Benedictine abbey of San Vincenzo al Volturno is situated in the Molise region and is the entrance door to the wild heart of Italy for those who come from the South. Protected from the Mainarde chain in the West and from the Matese massif in the South, this abbey is at the base of a rugged and rocky barrier which rises sharply, marking the border between Lazio region and Molise region. In the last few years we have arrived here with our backpacks on our backs and we have begun to control the Forme plateau, managing the “Rifugio del Falco” shelter and the Marsican Bear Visitor Centre. In the Molise area of Abruzzo National Park you can see beautiful landscapes and picturesque villages, with genuine living traditions. These simple traditions were just a rediscovery for us, but now they play an important role in our activities.
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