It is now more than four months since the outbreak of the vast fire that struck Monte Morrone, in the Majella massif, in Abruzzo, followed by further blazes that affected numerous municipalities. The flames burned thousands of hectares of forest in the Majella national park, around 5 per cent of its total area — one of the country's most biodiversity-rich zones.

Nearly six hundred hectares of summit grasslands went up in flames — precious ecosystems that are home to numerous endemic plant species. Investigations subsequently revealed that the majority of the fires were of deliberate origin, lending the whole affair an even more sombre air. The media, always in pursuit of fresh disasters, quickly stopped covering the story, and we readers too — by now anaesthetised and accustomed to tragedy — stopped thinking about it.

Carcasses and desolation in the forests of Abruzzo

Not everyone, however, has forgotten about Abruzzo. Among those who haven't is Luca Santini, a young photographer who decided to go and see for himself — and with his camera — how the mountains of Abruzzo are faring after the fires. "I was curious to see what the fire had left behind — the one the papers talked about so much until the flames were put out, and then, nothing," he told us. "As soon as I arrived I found death and desolation, charred carcasses of trees and animals."

Where grass used to grow

The photographs Luca took towards the end of October, among the mountains of the Majella national park, around the small hamlets of Pacentro, Marane and Bagnaturo, show dozens of charred trees, bare ground, and traces of life that seems to have abandoned those places entirely — like the empty shell of a snail. "As I ventured deeper into the wood I found myself immersed in a kind of spell; everything seemed to have come to a standstill around me, and a deafening silence enveloped it all," Luca Santini explained. "It was a strange feeling — despite the sunny day, everything was dark and ghostly. That strange silence was what struck me most."

Nature never dies

Nature, however, is always capable of rising from its ashes, and teaches us that life and death are inseparable, each necessary to the other. "I saw small signs of life – said Santini – like a kind of revenge on the part of nature, which managed to bring a smile to my face, but wounds like these take years to heal."

Italy reduced to ashes

The summer of 2017 was terrible for Italy, the first country in Europe by number of wildfires. Most of the fires struck protected areas of high natural value; in total, according to Legambiente, 35,000 hectares of our precious and irreplaceable environmental heritage went up in smoke. Just as in Abruzzo, so too across the rest of the peninsula the majority of the blazes were of criminal origin, casting the shadow of the mafia — something this country seems utterly unable to do without.