Italian abandoned beauty

Venice is beautiful. Everyone knows that. It's also full of tourists, which makes me want to go somewhere else. But where? I would have never thought about Lido – the small island where Venetians usually go to lay down on the beach. That's not my type of exploring new places, so Lido wasn't on my list. But just before our trip to Venice I had found out about Ospedale al Mare in Lido – the old hospital for kids with tuberculosis. What does make it so interesting? It's abandoned. The hospital gives the impression that people have left in a hurry, leaving everything behind. Such an apocalyptic landscape. What happened? Why? I couldn't have stop asking those questions, so had to go there.

Ospedale al Mare was opened in 1914. It was working for 60 years. In 70’s the hospital started to deteriorate and when the new hospital was built in Mestre, the one in Lido has been forgotten. In 2003 it was closed due to bad conditions. And that was the moment, when something weird happened.

Hospital staff just walked out from the buildings like they were supposed to come back next day as nothing has ever happened. All the medical equipment, computers, syringes, lab samples and medical documentation were left in the hospital. How come? Why nobody took it, cleaned it up? Walking those empty corridors, I was thrilled and intrigued at the same time. 10 years after the hospital closure you can still find documents, x-rays or lab samples in the buildings.

I spoke with the people who are interested in this topic trying to find the answer for my biggest concern: why did they leave it all behind? I was told that the reason was the lack of anyone’s responsibility for cleaning the hospital after its closure.. Jeff from Fictional Cities briefly, but accurately summed it up: well I suppose you could say 'that's Italy'. Which might sound a bit racist but can you imagine such a thing happening in, say, Germany? No, I can’t imagine.

Wandering between crumbling walls, destroyed computers and medical devices, looking at memos pinned to a board in former reception, seeing old bed linen and even toilet paper in ruined toilet made me think about the past and the future of Ospedale al Mare. Tragic past of the hospital is known, but what will happen with those nice buildings in next years? I see it as a cultural place full of residents of Lido, Venice and tourists. But that's my vision, not the reality. The reality paints a gloomy picture of this pretty, old hospital located at the seaside.