A photo provided by Italy’s national fire and rescue service on Aug. 25, 2024, shows rescuers coming to the aid of Giuseppina Bardelli, 88, who was found alive four days after she became separated from her son in a wooded area near Varese, in Italy’s Piedmont region.
Day after day, night after night, Giuseppina Bardelli would drink water from puddles, lay on her stomach and pray the rosary.
The 88-year-old was found alive and relatively well on Aug. 25, after spending four days and nights lost in the woods in northern Italy.
There, in a mountainous area near Varese, in the Piedmont region, she survived without food, shelter or clean drinking water.
Bardelli, who knew the area well, had been foraging for mushrooms with her youngest son, when the two decided to take diverging paths. She eventually grew dizzy and disoriented and fell 25 feet into a thicket of ferns.
Roberto Crugnola, Bardelli’s eldest son, said his mother’s past as an endeavoring mountaineer saved her.
“My mother was a member of the Italian Alpine Club for decades and in recent days she has exploited all the knowledge accumulated over the years,” he told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. “Paradoxically, perhaps a younger hiker wouldn’t have made it.”
Bardelli, at night, used foliage to create a makeshift bed beneath a beech tree.
Finally, her calls for help were answered as drones, helicopters and rescuers converged on her location — 25 feet below the nearest road — and pulled her out.
“I counted the days and knew that there were still rescuers around,” she told Luinotizie. “I heard both the drones and the helicopter. Then when I heard them close by, I shouted and, luckily, they heard me.”
Dopo 4 giorni di ricerche è stata ritrovata in vita, da una squadra di soccorso mista tra cui #vigilidelfuoco, l’anziana 89enne dispersa dal 21 agosto nell’area del Passo della Forcora, territorio di Maccagno con Pino e Veddasca#Varese #25agosto pic.twitter.com/oGjWnjT9Cn
— Vigili del Fuoco (@vigilidelfuoco) August 25, 2024
