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Elisabetta Zavoli

Many visitors come to this Franciscan convent to see the cypress of St. Francis, which is about 800 years old. Some collect cones from the ground in the hope that they will give rise to "blessed" plants.

The trunks of the olive trees show signs of their extreme age.

Maurizio De Ponti talks about how an olive tree's branches move toward the sun. Spending time every day with his 2,500-year-old olive tree, De Ponti can appreciate the continuous adaptation of these trees to their environment.

A boy comes out of a hole in the trunk of the plane tree of Curinga. The circumference of the trunk is 60 feet. The huge tree is also called Vrisi, a term that in the local dialect means "stream," likely because the area has many streams and springs.

The ruins of the Hermitage of Sant’Elia Vecchio in Curinga. The huge plane tree is thought to be 1,000 years old, brought to Curinga from the Middle East by a monk.

Luca Franzese, a guide in Pollino National Park, and Carmine Lo Tufo watch the sunset from among the roots of the Loricato pine. High-altitude tree populations are sparse, as are the Loricate pines of Pollino, whose individual trees grow far apart.

This old Loricate pine, Pinus leucodermis, is 600 years old. Called the Patriarch of Pollino, its massive roots anchor it firmly to the rocky and poor ground, typical of high altitudes.

The bark of the oak tree of Villa Falconieri is deeply furrowed and folded, showing lines of different colours.

Sheep graze at Passo Godi, between the municipality of Scanno and Villetta Barrea, inside Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park. The Pontone beech tree, behind the sheep, has been growing for about 750 years.

National park ranger Alberto Cocuzzi looks at the Pontone beech tree, which belongs to the species Fagus sylvatica. The trees’ barks fused over the centuries.