The decision by an Italian court to remove three children being brought up in the woods from their British-Australian parents has sparked a fierce debate in the country over alternative lifestyles.

Nathan Trevallion, a former chef from Bristol, and his wife, Catherine Birmingham, a former horse-riding teacher from Melbourne, bought a dilapidated property in a wooded area in Palmoli, in the central Italian region of Abruzzo, in 2021.

The aim was to raise their three children – Utopia Rose, eight, and six-year-old twins Galorian and Bluebell – as close to nature as possible.

They grew their own food, generated electricity via solar power and extracted their water from a well. Meanwhile, the children, surrounded by horses, donkeys and chickens, were homeschooled. Weekly trips to San Salvo,

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