IMAGE 1: A quote reads, “Intimate exposure to the native landscape through touch, sound and smell provided for a deeper understanding and appreciation of how precious and fragile our world is. Staff of The Diakron are passionate, kind, and possess a deep knowledge of ecology, nature, archaeology and architecture. They are acutely aware of the needs to accommodate blind and low-vision patrons. At the conclusion of this experience, I am humbled and honored to have been a part of their inaugural field outing experience.” – Richard, Abruzzo 2016 Participant

IMAGE 2: Group photo in front of the iron entrance gate to historic Casa Lawrence. Six figures stand and one kneels, all of them smiling contentedly after a delicious lunch. From left to right stand visually-impaired participant Richard, wearing a black polo and holding his white cane upright against his chest; Tour Leader Nathan Ranc in a brown and white plaid shirt; Assistant Tour Manager Melissa Sanchez in a patterned red tunic; blind participant Marie-Christine in a white turtleneck with her white cane leaned casually against her blue jeans; Assistant Tour Manager Luigi Lafasciano in a black tee with sunglasses slung from his collar; and Maria Pia Graziani, President of the Cultural Association and manager of the Transumanza Museum in Villetta Barrea wearing a light-blue jacket. Kneeling in front of Richard at the left side of the group photo in a long-sleeve black shirt is Assistant Tour Manager Andrew Gipe.

IMAGE 3: The black silhouette of a male red deer with antlers of 5 and 4 points, and attentive ears faces the camera. He stands against a pale blue sky and is framed by leafy trees on the left and right sides of the image. The black shapes of his legs merge with the grassy black horizon line at the knee.

IMAGE 4: Tour Leader Nathan is walking on a gravel path alongside visually-impaired participant Richard. A path crosses the image in the foreground from left to right and gradually ascends. Light green grass grows on either side of and within the path. Beyond the path, an expanse of forested hills extends into a mountainscape which defines the horizon line beneath a lightly-clouded blue sky.

IMAGE 5: Three human figures, dressed and equipped as hikers, stand together in a dense wood. The figure on the right, Bruno D’Amicis, Italian wildlife photographer, naturalist, and resident of Abruzzo, holds out the fallen limb of a European birch tree and explains its tactile properties. The leftmost figure, Assistant Tour Manager Melissa, looks over the right shoulder of participant Marie-Christine, whose head is tilted thoughtfully forward, as her right hand examines different species of lichen and moss on the branch. The thin, light gray branch is splotched by varying textures in different shades of green.

IMAGE 6: A large off-white parasol mushroom is held upside-down with its gills exposed to the sun and its stem projecting upwards. Melissa’s hands enter the image from the left and cradle the soup-bowl-sized mushroom, which fills the frame. Marie-Christine’s fingers enter from the top right and carefully investigate the mushroom’s soft, tender gills.

IMAGE 7: The dark-brown trunk of a small, bark-less tree extends from the bottom to the top of the image. Marie-Christine bows forward from left to right and uses her fingertips to investigate fresh scrapes and curled fibers on the shaved stalk. Out of frame, Nathan reveals that the small tree has evidently been used by Red Deer bucks to sharpen their antlers.

IMAGE 8: The left hand of grey-haired naturalist Bruno D’Amicis extends towards the camera and grips the top of a light-brown wooden pole which leans into the image from the right. The pole is a trail marker; a wooden plank in the shape of an arrow is affixed to its top and points away from the camera. It reads “Vallone Lampazzo 0.30 T6.” Marie-Christine grips the pole towards its base at the bottom righthand side of the photo; Bruno explains that it has been splintered and chewed half-away by the powerful jaws of a resident brown bear.

IMAGE 9: The image shows a close-up of a thumb and forefinger holding a slightly-curved, dark brown hair. The group was investigating a hefty, 200-year-old European beech tree. Bruno described the tree as a waypoint for resident mammals, and referred to is as the forest Facebook, where each might leave its own form of “status update.” Among the many traces of animal activity, a bear hair was discovered, lodged in the bark.

IMAGE 10: A close-up of the ground; in the left half of the image, brown-black mud is concealed by green, grassy sprouts and tiny ovular clover leaves. In the right half of the image, the bare mud has been sculpted by the depression of a young wolf paw. Four human fingers enter the image from the top right and hover above the four-toed mark to gently detect the contours of the footprint.

IMAGE 11: On the left side of the image, a kneeling figure with a camouflage hat crouches over a paint tray and mixes its thickening contents, a pale gray liquid plaster. Scattered around him on the gravel ground, filling the rest of the image, are a paint scraper, plaster powder, bottles of water, box of salt, wet wipes, and a dirty  camera bag filled with paper towels. Towards the top right of the image, a squat, topless white cylinder encloses a small area in the mud. Nathan is preparing to pour his mix into the mold; to make a hard copy of a red deer footprint.

IMAGE 12: Two hands proudly exhibit a plaster disk which fills the frame. It is about the size of a dinner plate, and light-gray with dark-brown residue from its contact with the muddy ground. From the surface of the disk, a red deer hoof protrudes towards the camera. The hoof is 10x7.5cm large, which is typical for a large male red deer. Below the hoof, the dewclaws have left a deep print in the mud suggesting that the stag was running.

IMAGE 13: A close-up of two heads in profile. Marie-Christine, on the left side of the image, wears an off-white cap and tilts her head forward (to the right) carefully. Nathan, on the right side of the image, wears a camouflage cap and faces left towards Marie-Christine. He extends his right arm leftwards beneath his head, towards Marie-Christine’s face. He is dexterously manipulating a broken stick which is surmounted by a heap of fibrous, dark-green bear poop. The scat’s subtle, herbaceous aroma reveals the ingredients of the bear’s diet.

IMAGE 14: Two images. The left shows participant Richard in profile, facing right. He is wearing an off-white baseball cap, jet black sunglasses, and a dark grey sweater. His right hand is feeding freshly-picked berries to his mouth. The left image is a close-up of an open palm which contains four tiny, dark-purple berries, each about the size of a corn-kernel. The group tests the bear-diet for itself; as it turns out, Abruzzo National Park is quite a tasty place.

IMAGE 15: French audio-naturalist and self-described “soundscape painter” Fernand Deroussen is shown walking from right to left, on a gradual slope upwards. He is holding a black, metal rod in both hands and directing it towards the ground. At the end of the rod is a puffy, dark-gray mass; a microphone, which is wired to a pouch hanging at his waist. Through the black headphones he is wearing, Fernand hears the cacophony of grasshopper sounds resonating through the dry, tall grass which reaches up around his feet.

IMAGE 16: Fernand stands in the center of a living room, directing his attention to the group which sits in a half-circle around him. An active laptop in the background plays audio samples of Fernand’s favorite field recordings and the audience attempts to identify the cause of the sounds (aquatic snail eating, howler monkeys, fin whales,  and a wide diversity of bird species).

IMAGE 17: A photo of Colleciglio, our beautiful accommodation in the park. The flat, plaster façade of a tall, two-story box rises from sunlit grass to blue sky. On the two longer sides of the large, central mass project arcaded, rectilinear wings. The plaster is a soft red pastel with accenting off-white frames (around the windows, doors, and vents). The minimally-inclined wooden gable-roof which peaks at the top, center of the photograph, is decorated by alternating brick patterns and an ornate wooden rake. Fernand and Marie-Christine step out of the villa, in the bottom, center of the photograph, onto the grass.

IMAGE 18: The image shows face-on, the villa’s south wing (the group’s living quarters); a red, plaster wall penetrated by three large arches that once beheld the passage of cattle, but have since been fenestrated. Stone pillars in the foreground, connected by long wooden posts prevent the horses and cows, which graze freely around the property, from approaching the large, glass windows. The sun is shining and the group has decorated the protective barrier with wet clothes from the rainy day before.

IMAGE 19:  View from the kitchen window: a suspicious brown cow stands in the grass and stares at the photographer.

IMAGE 20: A photo taken from the villa’s front door shows a swarm of horses grazing around a parked car in the front yard. Two dark-brown horses with black manes, a light-brown horse with a blonde mane, and a black pony listlessly nibble grass in the early morning sun.

IMAGE 21: View out the front door, looking down at the ground, reveals a heaping cow pie just beyond the welcome mat and threshold. This land mine would claim two innocents before the week was done.

IMAGE 22: Luigi and Marie-Christine sit together on a bench, with their backs against the front of the villa. They are laughing and talking as a friendly, black horse grazes around their feet. The horse’s coat glistens in the afternoon sun.

IMAGE 23: On the green, grassy turf of the villa’s front yard, at the right side of the image, Nathan is shown in motion, twirling his leg around a yellow soccer ball in preparation for a trick pass. At the left side of the image, a brown and white cow leans away from the French footballer in horror, its tender black eyes affixed to the inanimate sphere. After the photo was taken, Nathan made a gentle pass, the cow made thunderous jumps, and the spectating humans laughed. Soon thereafter, a cow pie appeared on the doorstep…

IMAGE 24: Foliage frames a view of the group standing on a hiking trail in the middle of the forest. Luigi, Marie-Christine, Melissa, Richard, and Nathan are huddled together in a circle on the gravel path, sharing a botanical find. Creeping around them in the grass adjacent to the path, wearing a blue and white, plaid flannel shirt and black sunglasses, is Andrew with his camera, taking photos of the action.

IMAGE 25: Richard walks briskly towards the camera along a gravel hiking path which is bordered on both sides by dense vegetation. He is dressed in black, wears black sunglasses and an off-white baseball cap, and wields a long, white cane. In the shadows off the path, at the right side of the image, Nathan stabilizes a camera trap against a tree. A camera trap is a hidden camera which detects warm objects in motion, then discreetly takes a photograph or video. To make sure it’s positioned just right, Richard models a mammal in motion.

IMAGE 26: Camera trap photo: at 8:33 P.M. on September 24th, a husky wild boar is seen moseying through the tall grass. He has covered himself in mud, a behavior that wild boar undertake to regulate temperature and remove parasites.

IMAGE 27: Camera trap photo: at 1:50 A.M. on September 20th, a large brown bear is captured on video sniffing around in front of the camera. Her eyes glow from the infrared light which discreetly illuminates the scene. As she walks from the left to the right side of the image, then completely out of the frame, an identifying mark on the right side of her bottom reveals her to be Ura, a well-known brown bear frequenting the area, and who has been seen by many villagers on the South shores of Barrea lake.

IMAGE 28: Camera trap photo: at 11:45 P.M. on September 20th, a red deer stag is captured on video walking along the gravel path in front of the camera trap.

IMAGE 29: Barrea by night: We see the small Italian town of Barrea from a distance, over the dark unknown of the wild. Its buildings are clustered on a hill-side. Starlight street lamps illuminate the blocky, architected shapes with a pale yellow glow. A hazy cloud hovers close enough to the electric firelight that it gives the impression of being smoke.

IMAGE 30: Barrea by day: In the foreground, an emerald green pasture and a crop of trees obscure the lowest parts of the town. In the middle ground, the cream-colored plaster faces and red, ceramic roofs of an architectural agglomeration cluster on a hillside. In the distance, a mountain rises out of frame against a cloudy blue sky.

IMAGE 31: A large, dark-brown pedestrian billboard reads “Comune di Barrea: ‘Centro Storico.’” Its raised, painted surface depicts the urban layout of the historical center of Barrea. At the bottom, right side of the image, Melissa stands upright, verbally describing the qualities of the map. Marie-Christine stands to next to her and reads the raised letters of the legend with her left hand.

IMAGE 32: Picturesque street scene in Civitella Alfedena: An elderly woman in a blue mumu tows a shopping basket in the bottom right hand corner of the image. She is descending (from top left to bottom right, across the image) a steep, cobblestone street which is fronted by white-plastered apartment buildings of two and three stories that step up the slope behind her. She has only just passed a dark green bench at street-level and a bunch of bright red roses projecting outwards from a window sill.

IMAGE 33: A close-up of the cobblestone street-scape in Civitella Alfedena. Three pairs of feet, two accompanied by canes, idle on light-gray pavers and recognize a familiar texture of the town; the smooth irregularity of a thousand square stone pieces.

IMAGE 34: Tour Leader Nathan Ranc fills water bottles at the Fountain of the Bears in Pescasseroli. The Classically-ornamented fountain is a large, light-gray stone pillar built against a bare cliff face. It was constructed in 1922 to inaugurate the opening of Abruzzo National Park. Two bronze bear heads protrude from the front surface of the pillar. Water is intended to spout from their mouths, but the monument is inactive today. Nathan uses a smaller, substitute fountain to its right.

IMAGE 35: Three separate images of an artist at work. Image 1: Assistant Tour Manager Melissa sits on a stone step with her back against a street-front house. She is wearing black sweatpants, a white sweater, and sandals, and is resting a small notebook on her thighs. Her attention is concentrated on the paper. With her left hand she is stabilizing the notebook and with her right, she grips a pencil above the page. Image 2: A close-up of the notebook over Melissa’s hands. She is drawing the architectural detail of a window. Image 3: A close-up of the windows in the buildings across the street from Melissa; the subject of her attention. A stone balcony with an ornate metal railing and three adjacent windows framed in the Neo-Classical style interrupt a flat stone façade.

IMAGE 36: In the foreground, a few beans, two pizza slices, a diminished bowl of popcorn, and half-empty bottles of oil, water, and wine, signal intermission of the group’s wine and cheese tasting in Villetta Barrea. In the blurry distance, Assistant Tour Manager Luigi stands at a bar and speaks with three locals. One of them stands behind the bar in a plaid blue button-down shirt. This is Giuseppe; he is the proprietor of this tavern and producer of the principal elements of our lunchtime feast.

IMAGE 37: Tour Leader Nathan stands on one leg in Giuseppe’s tavern. He is demonstrating the French technique for diagnosing drunkenness. He touches his nose with his right hand by crossing his right arm beneath his right leg, without falling over. 

IMAGE 38: Melissa and blind participant Marie-Christine walk arm-in-arm on the cobblestone sidewalk of Main Street in Villetta Barrea. The threshold of the door to Giuseppe’s tavern is just behind them, at the right side of the image. They are leaving the scene of a local wine and cheese tasting with heavy stomachs, light hearts, and full smiles.

IMAGE 39: Participant Richard elevates a gigantic Italian coffee pot above his head. He is sitting in the living room at the villa. In view, behind him down the corridor, are the kitchen, then the bathroom. His celebratory smile and triumphant gesture are an affectionate tribute to the caffeinated concoction. And so much did he love his Italian coffee that by the end of the week, he had purchased his own coffee pot and learned from master Luigi how to make a proper espresso.

IMAGE 40: Early evening inside Villetta Barrea’s mainstreet pub. Soft yellow lights hang from a tiled wooden ceiling. Locals gather in the background beneath the wooden arches above the bar and a barman and barwoman stand dutifully opposite (at the right side of the image) with their attention directed downwards to drink-making. In the center of the image, a smiling Luigi collects his change from the bar and just behind him (at the left side of the image) stands Richard with his cane embraced against the right side of his chest and his head tilted back in deep satisfaction (he just had a coffee).

IMAGE 41: View from above on a beautiful landscape: the Fucino plain from the hills above Gioia dei Marsi. The sun shines diagonally down and to the right between fat layers of pale blue clouds at the far left of the frame. It hovers above a mountain ridge array whose steep slopes subside in a valley at the bottom right side of the image. It’s a flat swathe of lush light green, intersected and subdivided by dark hedgerows, and dramatically illuminated by visible beams of sunlight.

IMAGE 42: The fully-packed trunk of the group’s silver touring van reveals its deftly-positioned contents: stack of mattress pads, hiking poles, black binoculars, digital camera, black suitcase, two wet jackets, pink duffle bag, blue and green sleeping bags, orange plastic trash bag, wooden dividers, blue tote, four packed tents, and green hiking pack.

IMAGE 43: Looking out the rear window of a car. The paved mountain road on which we’re driving curves away into the distance. The forest encroaches on either side. Behind us, a silver van which is transporting the other half of our group, and several other vehicles, have pulled off to the side of the road. A mob of black and white goats is crossing.

IMAGE 44: View from the passenger side. A wide-eyed red fox sits impatiently by the side of the road, hoping for a morsel of charity. His auburn eyes glare past the camera into the depths of the van.

IMAGE 45: View from the driver’s side. A female red deer is standing by the forked trunk of an apple tree, lifting her head intently, and staring wantonly at the camera. Her beautiful light-brown coat is accented by an occasional dark-brown patch, and pairs of pale white spots which trace her spine from the back of her neck to her fluffy white bottom.

IMAGE 46: View through the windshield. A huge red deer stag walks casually across the highway directly in front of the car. His majestic, 14-point antlers extend three feet skyward. He is leaving the shores of Barrea Lake; his gleaming, matted brown coat reveals that he recently had a mud bath. At the right side of the road, partially concealed by the forest’s eaves, a dark-brown street sign with bold white letters reads “Villetta Barrea.”

IMAGE 47: The abandoned forest-village of Sperone. Between a purplish sky and the emerald forest floor is the horizontal presence of pale plaster walls and red tiled ceramic roofs. We are viewing the town along its overgrown central avenue. On either side, the short ends of long, one-story living spaces step gradually down to a grassy town square. Facing us from across the distant square are the bolted double-doors of the church of Saint Nicolas.

IMAGE 48: Richard and Melissa take a closer look at the weathered architecture of abandoned Sperone. They are standing side-by-side extending their arms towards an eroded building corner. Richard grips his cane with his right hand and uses his left to feel the stacked skeletal stonework and the receding thickness of superimposed plaster layers.

IMAGE 49: A lame mule with a dark grey overcoat and white legs and underbelly grazes near a swing set in Villetta Barrea’s public park. Wooden benches populate the finely-trimmed grass. A wood-plank fence encloses the park. In the distance, the forested mountain domain of wild Abruzzo rises and falls.

IMAGE 50: Marie-Christine holds a large light-brown rock in her hands and carefully examines its physical qualities. It’s soft, porous, and relatively light for a stone of its size. It was once part of a stone wall at the archaeological site of San Vincenzo al Volturno, where the group is being given a guided tour of a fortified medieval monastery.

IMAGE 51: The group is standing in a fully-frescoed crypt. Melissa, Marie-Christine, Richard, Nathan, Maria Pia, and our local archaeologist tour guide listen carefully as Luigi delivers a visual description of the beautifully-painted interior. A spooky subfloor lighting system illuminates curious faces.

IMAGE 52: Marie-Christine extends her left arm towards the crypt wall and feels its plastered surface. She is wearing a white turtleneck under a black jacket. Melissa stands behind her, obstructed from view, and describes the centuries-old red stars and Latin slogans which are painted on the wall around her fingers.

IMAGE 53: Wisdom of local herb specialist Barbara. A middle-aged woman in a long-sleeve blue shirt crouches down in the grass and cuts the stem of a dandelion with a paring knife. Next to her is a medium-sized wicker basket filled with vegetables and bread. The group listens carefully as she guides us along the banks of a creek, identifies local plants and explains their medicinal and/or culinary value, then cuts samples for us to smell, feel, and taste.

IMAGE 54: Close-up of Marie-Christine smelling a freshly uprooted wild carrot (Daucus carota). With both hands, she has carefully positioned the muddy, pale green vegetable just beneath her nose and is taking a whiff. In the background, Maria Pia Graziani excitedly looks on.

IMAGE 55: Three figures in conversation against a mountainous background of cacophonous green textures. Nathan and Maria Pia lean against a wooden fence and listen to the Loreto, proprietor of Casa Lawrence, a centuries-old, family-owned eatery in the Piciniso countryside, explain his relationship to the wildlife of the park. In particular, he describes the way in which livestock and large carnivores can coexist in the rich eco-cultural landscapes of the park.

IMAGE 56: Cheers! The group is sitting for a “historical meal” at the Transumanza Museum in Villetta Barrea. Each extends their arm above the center of the table to tap shot glasses with the company. They are preparing to sip a sweet liqueur which was made with an Ancient Roman recipe.

IMAGE 57: The menu of courses in our “historical meal”: 1. Paleolithic starter according to the recipe of hunter-gatherers from Graziani Cave in Villetta Barrea (apples, walnuts, and forest spices); 2. Safina soup, made precisely as it was found in the Colleciglio necropolis (“painted” green grains); 3. Caraceno wine produced by the Vallis Regia winery, in memory of the Carricini who built the ancient city walls in Fonte della Regina; 4. Ratafia (sweet liqueur) in memory of the wars between the Romans and the Samnites (Rata fiat! = “all deals should be kept!”); 5. Lombard “lesca” (raw bread cooked in the Medieval tradition); 6. “Fasting dish” of the Benedictine monks of Grancia di Sant’ Angelo; 7. “Aragon” chopping board and “French greediness” (cheese and biscuits); 8. “Patriotic” ricotta cheese; and 9. Surprise Abruzzo sweet dish.

IMAGE 58: Close-up of the “patriotic” cheese dish commemorating the unification of Italy; a stumpy cylinder of white ricotta cheese, on a cheerful green plate, topped by syrupy red cherries, surrounded by seven little wooden spoons.

IMAGE 59: Tour Leader Nathan is standing in the Transumanza Museum holding up a poster with his right hand. The title reads “Tree of Life” and a large infographic shows the principal living components of Abruzzo National Park gathered around a tree. Nathan uses his left hand to indicate the different ecological niches occupied by the assemblage of mammals and birds of the park, and in particular how they interact with the beech forest.

IMAGE 60: Participant Richard stands with his back to a large fenestrated arch, one of the entrances to the Transumanza Museum. He is wearing his trademark bright red jacket and blue jeans. With his left hand, he holds a thick, wooden halter against his upper chest. With his right hand, he reaches below the basketball-sized bowl of a bronze cow bell which hangs from the halter and sounds it with the dangling clapper. This huge instrument once graced the neck of a bull and functioned as an auditory locator beacon.

IMAGE 61: Marie-Christine stands in the Transumanza Museum facing the camera with a blue, white, and grey plaid shirt draped over her shoulders. She holds an enormous wooden noise-maker in her hands and is carefully investigating the mechanism. A rotating frame containing thin wooden planks is affixed to a slender wooden pole with riveted gears. When the pole is elevated and moved in a circular motion, the frame rotates around the pole and the planks inside it flick against the rivets making, what we all agreed was, a horrendous noise. The intensity of the sound allowed shepherds in the mountains to command their livestock from miles away.

IMAGE 62: Richard carefully investigates a wall-mounted wood carving of the Abruzzese landscape with his right hand. He stands directly in front of the carving with his left hand resting on his cane. With rich textural detail, it depicts a massive herd of sheep descending among the natural obstacles of a mountainous terrain.

IMAGE 63: Participant Marie-Christine leans over a diorama of an Abruzzese landscape and uses both hands to discover modeled figures of shepherds and sheep in mid-transumanza. Transumanza, literally meaning “crossing the land,” is the traditional twice-yearly migration of sheep and cows from the highlands to the lowlands and back again. Tour Leader Nathan stands next to Marie-Christine holding her cane. His face expresses amusement and concern for the helpless miniature sheep in the clutches of her hands.

IMAGE 64: Richard stands next to a cardboard cutout of a traditionally-garbed shepherd of Abruzzo; the rustic, old shepherd wears an off-white woolen button-down, dark-grey flat cap, and a black wool jacket. Richard smiles wide for the photo and gives bunny ears to the unsuspecting cardboard shepherd.

IMAGE 65: An audience of locals from Villetta Barrea sit in an exhibition hall at the Transumanza Museum facing a projection screen. To the right of the screen, Maria Pia Graziani, Director of the museum, gives a standing, enthusiatic introduction to Nathan, Andrew, and Luigi, who sit to the left of the screen, in front of a laptop and projector. It is the last day of The Diakron Institute’s tour in Abruzzo. The group present the week’s activities in a series of photographs, explain the significance of a multisensory approach to an experience of nature, and dialogue about the relationship between ecology and culture.

IMAGE 66: Final fireside gathering; dinner is served at the villa. The group sits in a semicircle of chairs around the wide stone fireplace in the den of Colleciglio. Richard and Marie-Christine at the left, Melissa in the middle, and Nathan and Luigi on the right, reflect on the week’s experiences while they dine on pesto-infused chicken, roasted red peppers, and locally-produced wine. A warm, radiant fire illuminates the room, which is extensively decorated with images and instruments of the cultural phenomenon transumanza.

IMAGE 67: A bovine farewell. The curious head of a male cow waits just outside the front door. The right half of the image shows half a cow’s head abutting the front door frame. On thick white head are a fat pink nose, fluffy brown ears, long endearing lashes around tender brown eyes, and stubby little beige horns. In the left half of the image, just past the cow’s ear, we see the sun shining in the villa’s front yard; a grassy meadow extending to a forest of trees.