La Voce del Canavese, a news website in Turin, Italy, runs a remembrance of Gnasi [Ignacio] do Giardin (right, in photo), an old hermit who lived near the village of Traves , in Lanzo Valley, in a makeshift hut in the woods near an abandoned 17th-century chapel. The writer (named in the article) visited the old man once in a while and they would converse idly. Gnasi never revealed what had brought him to live in solitude, and the writer never inquired.
One day in early spring, the writer was about to visit the old man but found the hut abandoned; in the village the writer learned that Gnasi was now in a rest home. The writer learned that the old hermit had fallen in the woods one snowy winter night and had nearly frozen to death. Gnasi was rescued, barely alive, and rushed to a hospital where his legs had to be amputated. The writer went to visit Gnasi. Gnasi was depressed and unconsolable, so accustomedwas he to the freedom of solitude and self-sufficiency. Gnasi died days later.
URL: https://www-giornalelavoce-it.translate.goog/news/attualita/609918/barba-gnasi-do-giardin-un-eremita-tra-le-valli-di-lanzo.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_hist=true
Original article in Italian titled: “Barba Gnasi do Giardin. Un eremita tra le valli di Lanzoin.”