STAIRS INSIDE A TUSCAN RUIN

Fox House, yesterday's pic, is empty but in good condition. This house is another story. Access is easy with a good kick of the heel on the rotting door. It has been condemned and is the only ruin I've ever seen that I did NOT want to do up.

The main room is huge, has very low ceilings and is gloomy and dark. It was once a cattle byre, probably in the 16th Century. Throughout the years additions have been made to turn it into a pretty disgusting house.

I went there to do a room-with-a-view-from-a-ruin pic but the sun was shining so brilliantly the views were all washed out. I became transfixed by the junk inside it, the ancient tiles on the floors, the attempts to modernise and this rickety staircase leading to the upstairs bedrooms. It is steep, rotting and downright scary and I feared for the camera as I inched up and down it. The upstairs rooms are quite light and bright.

The last family to live there were Moroccan. I felt sorry for them because the sun hits the house only in the early morning, water runs down the inside walls and it is crumbling. There were many children who had no place to play except the road. They did have an extraordinary number of drums and whistles with which they rent the air every day after school. Their parents didn't understand the neighbourhood rules and dumped their rubbish across the road. The little valley opposite was filled with old mattresses, bed springs, plastic stuff, old shoes and clothes. It was not a pretty sight.

When they found better housing in town, the house was condemned by the Comune. The roof has been repaired and it is watertight but there it sits. There is no land with it apart from a small parking area. I can't wait to go back to photograph the old Tuscan sink filled with rubbish, the hideous old fireplace and the crumbling bits. If nothing else, it is a gold mine of blips.

For the record: Sun! +8 C. A landslide of rocks fell on our road just as we passed by, a narrow escape. We are lucky to be alive. We cannot get a scavatore, digger, until tomorrow. We are completely blocked in with huge rocks. Himself thinks it will make a great blip but it looks like just a pile of rocks to me.