Up to one and a half meters of snow fell on the mountain villages of the Apennines during the Christmas holidays.
In Italy, rescue services have found the bodies of two climbers who went missing in a blizzard before Christmas on Gran Sasso in the Abruzzo region, after a five-day search.
On Friday, the rescue team was able to reach the place of disappearance in the Apennine mountains with the help of a helicopter. Because of the snowstorm, the rescuers also had to take shelter at an altitude of 2,100 meters for two nights and stop the search.
The climbers were found twenty meters apart. On Sunday, they had jumped from the mountainside at an altitude of 2,700 meters into the gorge, where one of them was able to call for help.
An exceptionally strong snowstorm raged in the Abruzzo region, which subsided only after Christmas Eve. The pictures below are of the snow-buried village of Campo di Giove, located about 150 kilometers east of Rome.
In Campo di Giove, located at an altitude of 1,064 meters, the snow and stormy wind left behind up to one and a half meter snowdrifts. Campo di Giove and its nearby villages used their Christmas holiday to dig out cinemas.
AP