Sculptor Andrea Gandini carves a sculpture of a wolf's face from a dead tree stump in the Villa Pamphili park, Rome, Italy.-Reuters

Andrea Gandini, a22-year-old Roman sculptor, is making a growing name for himself by turning theEternal City's dead tree stumps into much-admired pieces of art. Gandini, whobegan his tree carvings around five years ago, chipped away at his 66th stumpin the huge Villa Pamphili park on Friday. He has plenty of raw material towork with. Rome is known as one of the greenest cities in Europe, with its313,000 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 beensculpting wood since I was a kid, in my garage. Then I chose to carve a stumpthat was out on the street. That is how I chose to start carving stumps inRome," he said, as he worked on his latest creation. He said he liked tomeet people while working and had no personal claim to the faces, animals andother artwork carved out the stumps. "It takes me about a week to finishone sculpture, then it becomes everyone's. It's a passion and a bit of afixation," he added, as passers-by stopped to admire his work and takephotos with their phones.

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

Although there isno law that forbids people from carving dead tree stumps, police havethreatened to ban him from historic areas using tough new rules drawn up inrecent years to maintain decorum. Gandini says he loves nature and it hurts himto see the trees become a safety hazard. They often fall and smash cars duringstorms, and city hall says some 86,000 need to be specially maintained orchopped down. "If nothing changes in ten years there will be hardly anytrees left," Gandini said.-Reuters