Seconded By: Ioannis Galanopoulos Papavasileiou,
Ottantuno is an evocative book that will leave hauntingly beautiful images imprinted on your mind, and in your heart. It tells of a close bond between a boy and his grandfather, and of their love of trees..
Dr Jane Goodall so begins the preface of Ottantuno the book created by Isacco Emiliani and Antonio Panzavolta.
Ottantuno, eightyone are the most important places of this story and the years of Antonio Panzavolta in the last picture taken.
After the death of Isacco’s uncle, his grandfather’s son, he found his camera and fell in love with photography. His grandfather was a farmer a great reader and he ofter told him about some iconic trees. They decided to photograph them to make a book.
For 7 years they travelled in the nights to discover the biggest trees. It was a journey that led Isacco and his grandfather Antonio to discover themselves
My Grandpa and the Hourglass
This is the popular name of the white hornbeam in the Foreste Casentinesi National Park. A tree with a unique, almost mythological shape. Shape that has changed over time, given by the seasons and passing animals.
Border line
Border line between the Italian regions of Emilia Romagna and Tuscany during Covid19
Lucky del Rio at full moon.
It was a meeting with a friend not far from home, the full moon had recently risen and highlighted the mane of his horse, we spent the night admiring all this.
The immense Olmatello pines of Faenza
In the Faenza hills, the full moon among some iconic pine trees not far from the city colors the sky and the hills, special trees that you can really see from many places.
White Lady in the Delta valleys.
One magical night I was wandering in the valleys of the Po delta with my grandfather, when he saw an incredible white owl, it was my first time, a barn owl up in a tree.
What magic, a shot to immortalize that moment in the middle of the night.
The hero of two worlds
This is what this immense ash tree, which we discovered many years ago, is called, an immense ash tree on the border between Romagna and Tuscany, between a cliff and a big mountain.
The immensity of a tree
It is powerful to compare man with the power and wonder of a monumental tree.
“The giant” is how this immense beech tree in the Casentinesi Forest National Park is called,
the person in silhouette in front of him is Filippo Cantoni, a friend with us in many of these nocturnal journeys.
Lights in the night
Traveling at night in winter allowed me and my grandfather to stay out a lot, the night was long and so we were able to reach a tree even if it was very far away.
That night in Verghereto we discovered an immense monumental beech tree, there was a lot of snow and the cold accompanied our entire journey, on the way back alongside our tracks, the footprints of a pack of wolves that we had not met on the way out.
The cypress of San Francesco
At Villa Verucchio, in the cloister of the convent of San Francesco, a cypress planted according to tradition by the latter in 1213.
A tree that has survived many events: Napoleon with his soldiers, the Second World War with its bombings and atmospheric events.
This is one of the first trees we encountered on this path, one of my grandfather’s favorites.
The hands and barks
The Cannetole Sequoia is an immense tree on the edge of a church. That night at the foot of the tree there were pieces of its bark, enormous in shape with beautiful veins.
The details with my grandfather’s hands reminded me of how tied we are to the earth.
