How a fatal bear attack led an Italian commune to rally against rewilding

Andrea Papi had gone for a jog when he encountered a bear in his native Trentino. Photograph: Angela Giuffrida/The Guardian

Franca Gherardini used to cherish the sublime views from her home in Caldes, a village surrounded by forests on the slopes of the Brenta Dolomites in northern Italy’s Trentino province.

But now she tries to shut out the scene as much as possible, rolling down the window canopy in the morning to avoid looking towards the area where her son, Andrea Papi, 26, was killed by a bear.