Andrea Gandini, a
22-year-old Roman sculptor, is making a growing name for himself by turning the
Eternal City's dead tree stumps into much-admired pieces of art. Gandini, who
began his tree carvings around five years ago, chipped away at his 66th stump
in the huge Villa Pamphili park on Friday. He has plenty of raw material to
work with. Rome is known as one of the greenest cities in Europe, with its
313,000 trees filling its many parks and lining the streets in the city centre.
However, many were planted nearly a century ago and are now weak or dying.
Seeing how they were neglected made Gandini want to act.

"I had been
sculpting wood since I was a kid, in my garage. Then I chose to carve a stump
that was out on the street. That is how I chose to start carving stumps in
Rome," he said, as he worked on his latest creation. He said he liked to
meet people while working and had no personal claim to the faces, animals and
other artwork carved out the stumps. "It takes me about a week to finish
one sculpture, then it becomes everyone's. It's a passion and a bit of a
fixation," he added, as passers-by stopped to admire his work and take
photos with their phones.

Gandini maps the
stumps on his website, and the sculptures are becoming a tourist attraction.
Tour guides even include his work in their packages. "Stumps are not very
well considered but they have the right features that make them perfect for
carving," he said. "Rome has many stumps that are waiting to become
pieces of art." Despite the popularity of his work among locals and
tourists, the Rome authorities have been less enthusiastic.

Although there is
no law that forbids people from carving dead tree stumps, police have
threatened to ban him from historic areas using tough new rules drawn up in
recent years to maintain decorum. Gandini says he loves nature and it hurts him
to see the trees become a safety hazard. They often fall and smash cars during
storms, and city hall says some 86,000 need to be specially maintained or
chopped down. "If nothing changes in ten years there will be hardly any
trees left," Gandini said.-Reuters