The HIVE Tour - Episode 66 - Morning hilltop walk becomes rather URBEX

The more I stay here at this farm in Italy the more I thank myself for that choice. Have a look at my bedroom view:

 

Not too bad right? So on this beautiful day I decide to "Carpe Diem" and leave my place behind to explore the area walking:

It already seems to be a fruitful choice:

And a nice walk in this green heaven:

Part of this route offers a lovely view like this:

Feel free to caption this "The Arch of Green Triumph":

Here's another one, handmade, which frames my picture in this lovely way:

The green heaven goes on:

Funny to see that some trees have bare roots out of the ground as if they try to escape:

This is where the green heaven gives its place to the local village named Quero though some plants like the following show impressive resistance to the concrete dictatorhip:

And rightly so, it's got no sidewalk and it's gross:

I take the first road uphill which I can't picture without my shadow photobombing it:

If I was in charge I wouldn't paint the barriers in this rust colour but I want to believe that that's the most rust proof they had available:

I prefer the view without it anyway:

I don't know if you can tell by the trees but it's a super windy day:

The view is still superb though:

I continue walking up with noise wind parallel to

this "rusty" brown barrier:

And when this barrier "breaks", it allows views like this:

The local forest is pretty dense:

Though some trees are about to fall and block the road anytime soon, hopefully while no one is passing by:

No surprise that there's landslides here too:

Hence this metal net:

The view remains gorgeous:

The risk for the local drivers not as gorgeous though in the absence of a barrier:

Even worse, the road becomes narrow as a funnel:

Interesting to watch the layering on this rock formation regardless if you're a geologist or not:

Scenic route nevertheless, at least while they're no traffic:

Everybody can see this gap in the barrier:

Not everybody would notice the rock missing on the opposite side though:

Now you can imagine what happened here sometime ago 😉

Tight yet scenic route:

That huge pillar behind those trees looks like a six handed gigantic robot:

I can't figure out what they cultivate down there:

Hmmm so the "strada" is "priva"? Really?

This is the first break of barrier I see that has stairs:

Who knows when it was the last time this thing was walked:

That drain leads the water under the street:

Stupidly enough people through shit in here:

That "six handed robot" from one more angle:

One more barrier break:

With its own set of stairs:

Can't have enough of this view:

At least as long as these trees stay in place and don't fall on my head:

At this point it becomes clear that there's no shortcut to make it to a hilltop, instead I'd have to walk at least as much on this road and all the way back so I decide to quit this route and go back to the village to seek another one.

I walk back in the village of Quero where the day is still young and the houses look like they have overslept:

The absence of sidewalks sucks big time. This must be one of the most indifferent villages I've ever seen (no worries Quero, I've seen even worse, I've toured South Italy too, sleep tight 😉):

I take a short break on this bench,

where I see this thing on the other side:

Is this a church honouring "S. Antonii" (as it reads)? I can't cross check it as it's not even on Google Maps. Right here is also one of the most central houses of the village i a condition that makes you wonder if it's still lived or not:

Walking a little further I meet this cross literally in the middle of the road:

As you can see this cross is a cross between WTF and a prank. I guess it lights up at night which probably makes it even funnier.

Finally a bit of sidewalk:

If the village has one church that's it for sure, dedicated to Virgin Mary:

Not sure what's that for though:

It's a very windy day and the flags suffer:

My aim is to make it to the top of that hill:

But first I want to take a few pictures here. The church of course:

The sunbathing building:

And the wrinkles of dissertation:

Walking uphill now these beauties cover another questionable house here:

This next sign is a spoiler of where I'm heading to:

Nature knows the best way to cover the scars humans leave behind:

The road going up is in much worse condition that the one I walked in the previous sub episode but I don't care at all as I'm on my two not so demanding feet:

Besides, I can't complain with the view it offers anyway:

There's a significant amount of rocks waiting to slide down behind those trees:

Pity I can't provide a clearer view than the following - pretty scary to imagine what's gonna happen if (rather when) they all come down:

One more interesting rock formation:

The road continues in its rather awful condition:

But the view is anything but awful:

Suddenly I'm not all alone up here anymore due to this guy:

Such a cutie. Escorted by his old lady. I say hi to both and continue this lonely way up:

At this point I'm given too options: Follow the "scalette" (stairs),

or the crappy tarmac that brought me here:

I guess you can imagine my choice so... here I go:

Not much of stairs right? These look more like it though:

They don't look as if they are walked often, if any at all:

Finally, after all this walking around this area I get my first site to walk I'm looking for with the Italian flag waving proudly under this blue sky on this windy day:

Climbing is not over though, more stairs to do:

The stairs are over and there's a barrier to jump at the end making the following picture easy to caption "it's a long way to the top if you wanna urbex 'em all":

Climbing is over, barrier is jumped, view looking down:

Up here there's s sign with a map of the whole area:

But the visitors will appreciate (even) more this bench:

Not (only) because some might need some rest but (also) because the view from the top is definitely worth it:

However, I am not here just for the view but mainly for this thing:

You may wonder WTF is this and I won't disagree cause it looks pretty odd if nothing else:

From the information I manage to collect this is some sort of monument/military observatory, made by a Venetian antiquarian professor named Antonio Bressa. He seems to have done several such attempts in this region. The place is fenced and reads "entrance prohibited, private property" but I see no one around and decide to step in.

This long stairway on the left is among the first things one can see in here:

The vandalism and dissertation of the place is beyond obvious from the first steps:

The view to the local valley is so nice:

This place radiates such an odd feeling. It's a cross between spooky, cute and kitschy. This building looks like it was lived until sometime not too long ago with chances of it still being lived temporarily:

The trees are the only ones looking pretty as it gets since the vandals didn't target them and the weather didn't harm them either:

That view though...

Clear blue Italian sky, super windy day, proud Italian flag:

Not a bad house to stay actually:

This is how it looks like now:

Hard to beat its view:

The next two shots are here just to confirm what I already said about the trees and the Italian flag:

Not sure where this stairway led to back in the day this place was at its full grace but now it just leads to nowhere:

Funny to find out that the creator of this thing had the idea to make these figures on the cement floor:

How could he imagine that today the only use of his creation would be for firewood storage:

Every detail I look at smells "odd", or should I better say "stinks"?

Time to take the long way up:

I think I am running out of words so feel free to comment this:

Wanna see it from above? Be my guest:

The view is still something we can all agree on:

Missed some odd bits? Here's another one:

And one more, probably listing places where important battles took place (Italians feel free to apply your input):

This gives you an idea on what happens here at (some) nights:

I don't envy them, the view in the daylight is impressive:

Here's one more viewing angle to that odd column you saw before:

As I keep climbing this thing I feel like I play a game where I finish on stage after the other.

Here's the next one:

Which brings me in front of that thing with the names of places you saw before:

Figures on concrete all the way:

Now I am in the most contradictory moment of this day. In front of me I have this:

While behind me the view looks like this:

It's obvious which wins but for the urbex of things and out of pure curiosity (which hopefully won't kill the cat) I step inside this mess:

Vandalism? What vandalism?

Look at that mosaic on the floor!

As you saw it reads "1966" and I think it looks like a 60s attempt indeed. Besides, the creator died in the mid 70s so...

This stairway allows me to go even higher and of course I don't miss the chance:

I don't miss the signs of vandalism either though:

As I make it to the roof top of this thing I'm impressed to the sight of this tarmac insulation - not sure at all they did such applications in the 60s and even if so (which I doubt) this doesn't look 60+years old either:

Figures on cement are everywhere here and they always put a smile on my face:

Weather and vandals changed the looks of this thing a lot:

Fancy some view from the top? There you go:

There's people who find joy in trashing such places:

I'm surprised that they didn't trash this room that much:

This is the very top of this abandoned complex:

And that's the view it offers:

Time to go down:

These details never end - look at this:

This is a house next to this complex which looks like it is lived, pretty neat but no one's around:

I think the trees are the lucky guys up here:

I'd better take the semi devastated tarmac on my way down than going through those stairs again:

This bench looks like it comes from the Mussolini era:

Bare roots always catch my eye:

Here's a 4K video where you can get an audiovisual idea about this walk of mine:

Thank you for walking with me, hope you liked it,

see you on the next one!