Past, present and future fight a never-ending battle in Italy. Ancient ruins, abandoned towns, dismissed industrial implants are there to remind us that past should be integrated in a constructive way in the present in order to walk toward the future. But, as all the things in life, it is easier said than done! With this post, I’m going to launch a new column dedicated to “abandoned Italy”: a voyage that goes from neglected buildings to ghost towns and empty houses in need of refreshing. Discover the forgotten Italy and the story behind it.
As I was browsing through my external hard disk devoted to the sacred job of storing all my pictures, I realized a certain “theme” was quite recurring among them: abandoned stuff.
You see, growing up here, in this marvellous chaos of a country, makes you quite conscious of the time passing by: as our old people like to say nothing remains, we are all just passing by.
You might think that all the monuments we have, the Roman ruins, the ancient pillars and statues barely standing, the Medieval villages and fortresses are there to remind us that no, past is present, memory is still alive and kicking. But no, I feel it’s more complicated than that. When you have such an incredible amount of artefacts and archaeological heritage to be uncovered, protected and even integrated into the urban fabric, you need resources and money which are often hard to find.
Sometimes past even gets in the way of the future. I have lost count of how many times, while working and excavating in order to build a road, a hospital or a stadium, a Roman villa or something like that has suddenly emerged. What to do in these instances? It may seem natural to say “save the past, f*ck the new shopping mall”, but is it really THAT simple? What if a prehistoric village is found in a riverbed? What if we discover Roman ruins while laying the foundation of a much needed hospital? Is it better to invest money in the past or in the future?
When you find yourself in front of “the past” it’s not always the same story.
Sometimes relics and ruins are just the ghosts of an illustrious past, here to remind us that all the power and glory will not last forever. Again, we are all just passing by.
Sometimes they are ghost towns that people had to abandon in order to run away from poverty or a natural disaster.
Sometimes progress and economy forced people to abandon rural villages to relocate in the industrious cities.
And sometimes they are unfairly and shamefully forgotten by society and local administrations.
With this new column “Abandoned Italy” what I aim to do is to show you glimpses of discarded realities and trying to interpret what they want to tell us. Other than that, let’s confess it: abandoned places exude a haunting and irresistible charm that we all crave to capture in a picture.
Today, in order to connect with my previous post focused on the Medieval walled town of Marostica, I’ll share with you some pictures of buildings with are allegedly empty and located in the famous City of Chess.
Marostica city centre is very neat and well-preserved and you can tell locals are fond of their town; the only abandoned buildings I have found are, more or less, all around the area of Porta Breganze, the Western entrance of Marostica’s city walls.
Porta Breganze
Let’s take a look!
“The tragedy of life is not death, but what we let die inside of us while we live”
Norman Cousins
“Art is never finished, only abandoned”
Leonardo da Vinci
“If you survive long enough, you’re revered – rather like an old building”
Katherine Hepburn
“Our lives are but specks of dust falling through the fingers of time. Like sand of the hourglass, so are the days of our lives”
Socrates
By the way, if you’re fan of sinister content, I highly recommend you to follow Human Safari, probably the best travel vlogger/youtuber we have in Italy and watch his “Italia abbandonata playlist”. All his video are in Italian, but I think you can enjoy this playlist nonetheless [ just watch his videos and do NOT actually go explore those places, it’s dangerous!]
What about your neighbourhood? Are there creepy or dismantled buildings that you like to photograph? Let me know in a comment if you like!
A presto!
My Dear Italia 
You really hit a nerve with this post.
I struggle to understand the policy of our ministry for cultural heritage to discourage old buildings renovation with impossible or insanely high cost demands for preserving intact the original structure, sometimes by even requiring to use the very same old bricks. One of my client office is in an historical building and they can’t even hammer a nail on the wall, let alone new electrical cables.
Moreover, as cities grow and industrial districts move to the edges, warehouses and other industrial structures are left behind abandoned instead of being repurposed as homes, lofts or condos.
The result is all these buildings are left inhabited, rotting until they crumble, most of the times giving a feeling of poverty and despair, sometimes becoming home for homeless people, usually worse.
If only they gave us the chance to use them as homes at a very cheap cost and taxes, we would probably be able to have enough money left to renovate and live in them, leaving more land free.
The way we treat our own country is really disgusting.
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AMEN, Alberto. AMEN! I hate how they always promote “cementificazione selvaggia” destroying nature, but you are not even allowed to touch a stone of an “historical building” and actually restore it. Typical Italian nonsense. Italy, sadly, is also this madness.
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Ah! What do you mean, “do NOT actually go explore those places”? Everybody who reads this will run to his playlist and make a plan. 😀 Well… at least I’m tempted. If I find something close to me, I’ll definitely check it out, at least from afar. 🙂
In any case, a lovely idea. There is truly many has-been property in Italy. And I can see how it is: for every cable that needs to be laid, there is an Etruscan or other megapolis jumping out! (Well, almost.) I have never thought about that – Italy would need to spend millions if every promising historic area was to be explored. So they just let it lie there.
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Hehe, I was aware that saying that would have resulted in the opposite effect 😂 You can go see those places from a distance of course, but he actually goes inside those decrepit buildings and THAT is very dangerous. In fact sometimes he doesn’t even say where those places are located in order to avoid people emulating him.
Eh, indeed…
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Interesting post. I’ve heard it referred to as Italian Decadence Style. I often wonder if there was ever a period in which cities appeared more taken care of. Has it always been an overlapping of abandonment? What I find quite brutal is the eyesore of the contemporary structure that has been abandoned. When a building has a bit of history behind it and gives the impression of having had a heyday, we can wax poetic with a camera or a drink in hand, but when it’s stark ugliness halted in mid track…
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AMEN, Karen. I totally agree. If you check the playlist of the Human Safari guy, you can see those abandoned contemporary structures, which are “a pugno in un occhio” as we say here. It’s unbelievable the amount of abandoned stuff he can find around Italy… * sigh *
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Hey Sara! Agreed, very interesting post, not something I’ve thought of to tell you the truth. I mean in terms of what a waste it is to have all these buildings sitting there and that they can actually pose a danger to people as well. Thanks for informing me. Liked the photography in this one!
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Grazie mille cara 🙂
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