In 2010, some of my family spent a couple of weeks outside Perugia, Italy. The house, nestled in the rolling Umbrian hills, was comfortable and gorgeous and beautiful. Most of Marsha’s pictures from that trip occupy prominent places in other albums.
A short stroll on a winding dirt path from the main house, we found a half-built structure, abandoned to the weeds and the spray painters.
“Are all vandals the same?”, we wondered. Are Italian graffiti-artists more soulful? More classic? Can we espy intimations of Michelangelo or Titian in the bursts of purple and blue?
You be the judge. (Answer: no.)
The place looked like it might have been destined to be a barracks at one point. Or perhaps an olive-pressing room for the bottlers in the area.
It was late afternoon when we visited. The light came slanting in from the west, casting shadow-slats on the walls.
The indescribably photogenic Umbrian countryside was somehow made more so, when framed through an empty concrete hole.
All content and images © copyright Marsha Steckling
Cafe Decay 
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