I was very young when I began to feel the need to walk the trails, hills, the countryside rich in vineyards. My instinct guided me towards abandoned houses, where there were small clusters of rural dwellings. They were crumbling but alive despite the state of abandon. They appeared as sacred, immobile, proud, and mysterious temples. The roofs were partially collapsed and the rays of the sun filtered and it was possible to see the clouds. Even the stones that stood out from the ceiling and walls, scattered everywhere, looked like sculptures rich in symbols, according to an ancient code to decipher. The grass and shrubs grew on the walls, the plaster was blackened by the rain and time. Despite everything, I still felt the presence of those people who had lived in those places, far from the civilized and modern world.

It may seem strange, but in spite of the fact that the soil, stones piled up, grass, and plaster fell to bits, scattered all around, everything appeared clean and neat, according to a divine and no-human order.

I wonder why, in these places there was a sense of contemplation and peace, I wanted to thank Nature for the well-being that I could breathe. I remember the ruins in the center of Forio, not far from my house. During the last war, there had been bombs. There had been deaths and injuries. When I went there, always admired what remained of them yet. I imagined the lives of those within those walls had suffered and rejoiced. I always thought about a restoration to stop the collapse that could happen at any moment. For me it was important they were left there as a testimony of a past that needed to reflect.

I was afraid when everything would have collapsed, a piece of history would have finished and the souls who had lived at that site, would have disappeared forever. Even at night when I came back home, I stopped a few steps away from these spectral walls, which seemed to come to life in magical dancing beneath the moonlight.

After a few years, these ruins were bought and razed to the ground in a few days. A large modern house was built in a few months. I was upset in the evening when I came home and there were the lights on, the voices of people who lived there, the clothes were hanging off the balconies.

That subtle relationship between me and the past world, finished forever. The mystery and the sacred silence of the place that made the mind wander, was replaced by a new and different life.