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. ITALIAN FIRE SERVICE/HANDOUT

An 88-year-old woman was rescued alive and relatively well after being lost in the woods for four days and four nights in northern Italy, thanks to survival skills she learned in her younger days, her family says. Giuseppina Bardelli was rescued from a thicket of tall ferns about 25 feet below a road. She had been there without shelter and having brought no food or water for the duration of her ordeal.

On Aug. 21, Bardelli and her youngest son were foraging for mushrooms in a mountainous area she knew well near Varese, in the Piedmont region. She became separated from her son, choosing to remain at a lower altitude while he climbed higher.

After suffering a bout of dizziness, she became disoriented and fell about 25 feet into the ferns, and that's where she stayed until rescuers finally heard her cries for help on Aug 25.

Roberto Crugnola, Bardelli's eldest son, said his mother's past as a passionate 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 Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. "Paradoxically, perhaps a younger hiker wouldn't have made it."

"At night I would prepare a bed with the ferns, underneath a beech tree," Bardelli told local online news outlet Luinotizie. "I remembered from the times in the Italian Alpine Club that it was best to sleep on my stomach, and so I did this. I drank water from puddles."

"At night, when darkness came, I prayed the rosary. Every night a fox came to see me, but I heard the noises and the presence of other animals," she said.

"Those days were terrible for the family," Grugnola said. "We almost lost hope."

But his mother didn't.

"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."

Bardelli was brought to a nearby hospital where she was treated for dehydration and several broken ribs, but was otherwise unharmed.

Her sense of humor was also still seemingly intact.

"When I saw my children again yesterday afternoon, I said to them: 'This time I really messed up!'" she quipped with a smile.

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