For me, being on a photo mission has usually meant traveling and working far away from home, in a more or less exotic place. It therefore was a novel feeling to be “on assignment” for Rewilding Europe in the Central Apennines of Italy, which is really literally speaking my own backyard.

A young male Apennine brown bear was found shot dead in mid-September, just outside the village of Pettorano sul Gizio. After a few days of investigation, the culprit was found and he confessed that he had deliberately shot the bear as it kept on visiting his chicken pen. This sad story can surely teach us a lesson…

Finally, He came. It had been already five or six afternoons with me there waiting, lurking under a juniper in the anonymous valley at the edge of the beech forest. I was feeling the fatigue from the many hours of waiting, but I really didn’t get bored.

How about roaming with European bison in the wild Țarcu Mountains, in the Southern Carpathians in Romania? Or five days to enjoy Abruzzo, one of the most interesting wildlife areas in Italy, where bears still live and are frequently seen? Or go for birdwatching in Grande Brière, the second largest marshland in France and a land of unspoilt salmon rivers, scrub land, heath land and forest, surrounded by warm emerald-coloured oceanic waters. These are the top three quality offers for the first draw of the Rewilding Europe Travel Club in 2014.