Invasion

This asylum was definitely a bit different than most I've visited, as it stood right in the middle of the city. A massive brick edifice lined one side of a long and narrow street - it was all an unremarkable gray, and I had originally mistook it for some abandoned apartment building or factory on the first pass. Indeed, it has served purposes along these lines many many years ago. The heavy wooden shutters were drawn tight on all floors, and seemed to have remained that way for quite some time due to the thick cobwebs and layers of grime. The main building definitely had a imposing and depressing vibe here on the road.

A high brick wall was attached to the edges of this large structure and formed the campus proper, where smaller buildings rested - luckily the tall iron gates were open. Entering the courtyard, we were greeted with a pleasant landscape of flowering trees, a fountain, and much more appealing architecture. Even the dingy, factory-like main building took on ornate details, in the stonework and arched windows. There were also goats. Lots of goats. They grazed on a fenced off area of the campus, which seemed to hold the most opportunity to find an open door or window.

We dashed towards a small outbuilding and slipped inside - and were greeted with a stainless steel autopsy table. Once again here in Italy, we inadvertently found ourselves in the morgue; however this one was completely covered in goat shit. It was a bit slippery and stinky, but fascinating nonetheless. This environment, kept so sterile and clean all these years (hopefully), was now just utterly foul. After 20 minutes I stood about two inches taller from all the dung packed under my boots.

Some vigorous scraping on a concrete step brought us back down to normal height, and we proceeded to try for some other structures, but they were locked up pretty well. One decent sized building has a small hole that led into the basement, which contained many ancient glass bottles from the pharmacy, some still bearing mysterious liquids and syrup-like substances. If only I could read the labels. Some more crawling got us upstairs, bur we didn't stay long...