The only major explore of note from our travelling vagrants trip about Tuscany in October this year.
In 1934 local government decided upon a plot between the quiet mountain villages of Montorsoli & Pratolino above the ancient cultural city of Florence (firenze), chosen for its mountain location, solitude and quality of air, whilst being close enough to the city to be useful for th treatment of TB & similar.
IT took until 1939 to finally finish it, which took 4 contractors, so it was a bit of a mess & a joke, its opening day was a quiet event due to their embaressment for this
Upon its opening its role was changed from TB treatment to a more normal hospital function. IT was used as this until 1989, when it was then used to house Kurds & Albanians (presumably refugees?), by 1997 it was wrecked, poorly maintained and condemned for even this usage.
The design is very 1930's, made of concrete and steal, she stands upto 7storeys tall with a basement. And was noted for its good use of views & natural lighting.
From what I've read, people enjoyed working & being there, and except the refugee population in the 90's I don't think there were any significant scandles or such.
View from the front.
The idea was we took a 1euro bus up into the mountains, then use the sanatorium as a hotel for the night, but we arrived a bit late, it was dark, there was security, dogs (somewhere) and contractors on site. So we instead opted for the roof of a water pumping station instead.
The water pumping staton, offered us a warm heated floor for the night
Guido Banti was deceptively large and housed 11 or 12 staircases, ALL made from and lined with glistening white marble. White marble is virtually free in italy, even the street kerbs are made from it.
More stairs, very euro, with deco glass bricks giving nice lighting and a brass and glass elevator down the centre.
Like it says on the tin, Ex-ospedale Guido Banti, until I actually saw the sign I thought she was called Banti Pratolino (pratolino is a village about 1km away).
Top floor of the ward wing. Amazing huge 30's windows would have made this a pleasent place to be, although summer & winter tempretures may not have been so tolerable.
we made our way to the tower, which offered spectacular views over the city of florence that we had made our home for a few days. This was connected to the elevator machinary.
The city of florence is about 5miles down the mountain from here.
View from the top of the tower, security in his volvo at the front. Upon access we basically walked the roadside perimeter, with backpacks, nodded at him talking to a mate, walked behind him, then made good our way in. He must have known what we were doing and just not cared. I liked italy, I liked it a lot, I liked their laidback attitude to everything, and I liked the company I had kept with me on this trip, cheers guys
We had started at the top, and worked our way downwards (towards the contractors!), about the 5th floor we found the commuinal hall & chapel. The plasterwork in here was in remarkable condition despite the buildings 20yr abuse since it left the care of local government.
The projection room was probably my second favourite part of the sanatorio, projectionists folly a plenty!
Unusually, these girls did not appear to be imaginary, but real life studies of nurses, doctors (?), patients and partners, most were really good.
Worth noting the round red emblem drawn on most of these girls, like a badge, with 'MMM' on it. One of them was annotated, but the photo is not online. I think it was either one of two things, 1) the nurses 'badge' for that hospital, or the more likely 2) someones mark, the badge meaning 'Done that'
Isn't it amazing that hospitals use the same colour scheme the world over?
The level of dereliction was proportionate to the floor we were on, top floor was water damaged, and bottom floors were piked & stripped by workers, inbetween was in nice enough condition.
In the treatment wing, approx lvl.3, was this giant pile of Original, handmade in Milan, Sanatorium wear. there were full outdoors working jackets, smart jackets, 100% wool pants, undergarments, and I'm pretty sure there was a woolen shirt (one for dweeb I think). Most of it was awesome, but the others were not really interested in it, I was, and I have a job for anybody that can sew
not a brilliant photo, but I was trying to demonstrate the differences in building techniques between UK and italy hospitals, and YET, amazingly, the finished products look SO SIMILAR from the inside, smell the same too!
another staircase, I really needed a 10mm to do these place justice
Nearly at the end of our sanatorio explore, Larey came running upto me & Urbanfox, clutching an xray of someones pelvis, he was pretty much jumping up and down with excitement. He tried to explain that there was a fully fledged xray machine next door, and there was! AMAZING!
as all four of us entered the room, it came to all of us at the same time...
'we must get naked in this room now'
Of course, as per page3 shots, there was for the first time mixed gender group nudity in an international setting noless! Took quite a few 'attempt's to get this looking decent, but apart from the obvious nudity, it was just plain fun.
After the nudity, we nearly walked into some builders, looked at the entrance hall (grand with indoor fountains and several more tonnes of gleeming white marble), then made our exit.
we went into the adjacent woods, started a fire, and toasted marshmallows whilst laughing to ourselves at what we had just done.
Big thanks to Speed, Larey & the smelly ginge for making it a very memorable trip, there were great highs, and gobsmacking lows, but we did it, 8days on 80euro and sleeping bags only
And I fucking love italy, theres even a BUS STOP outside the explores.
In 1934 local government decided upon a plot between the quiet mountain villages of Montorsoli & Pratolino above the ancient cultural city of Florence (firenze), chosen for its mountain location, solitude and quality of air, whilst being close enough to the city to be useful for th treatment of TB & similar.
IT took until 1939 to finally finish it, which took 4 contractors, so it was a bit of a mess & a joke, its opening day was a quiet event due to their embaressment for this
Upon its opening its role was changed from TB treatment to a more normal hospital function. IT was used as this until 1989, when it was then used to house Kurds & Albanians (presumably refugees?), by 1997 it was wrecked, poorly maintained and condemned for even this usage.
The design is very 1930's, made of concrete and steal, she stands upto 7storeys tall with a basement. And was noted for its good use of views & natural lighting.
From what I've read, people enjoyed working & being there, and except the refugee population in the 90's I don't think there were any significant scandles or such.
View from the front.
The idea was we took a 1euro bus up into the mountains, then use the sanatorium as a hotel for the night, but we arrived a bit late, it was dark, there was security, dogs (somewhere) and contractors on site. So we instead opted for the roof of a water pumping station instead.
The water pumping staton, offered us a warm heated floor for the night
Guido Banti was deceptively large and housed 11 or 12 staircases, ALL made from and lined with glistening white marble. White marble is virtually free in italy, even the street kerbs are made from it.
More stairs, very euro, with deco glass bricks giving nice lighting and a brass and glass elevator down the centre.
Like it says on the tin, Ex-ospedale Guido Banti, until I actually saw the sign I thought she was called Banti Pratolino (pratolino is a village about 1km away).
Top floor of the ward wing. Amazing huge 30's windows would have made this a pleasent place to be, although summer & winter tempretures may not have been so tolerable.
we made our way to the tower, which offered spectacular views over the city of florence that we had made our home for a few days. This was connected to the elevator machinary.
The city of florence is about 5miles down the mountain from here.
View from the top of the tower, security in his volvo at the front. Upon access we basically walked the roadside perimeter, with backpacks, nodded at him talking to a mate, walked behind him, then made good our way in. He must have known what we were doing and just not cared. I liked italy, I liked it a lot, I liked their laidback attitude to everything, and I liked the company I had kept with me on this trip, cheers guys
We had started at the top, and worked our way downwards (towards the contractors!), about the 5th floor we found the commuinal hall & chapel. The plasterwork in here was in remarkable condition despite the buildings 20yr abuse since it left the care of local government.
The projection room was probably my second favourite part of the sanatorio, projectionists folly a plenty!
Unusually, these girls did not appear to be imaginary, but real life studies of nurses, doctors (?), patients and partners, most were really good.
Worth noting the round red emblem drawn on most of these girls, like a badge, with 'MMM' on it. One of them was annotated, but the photo is not online. I think it was either one of two things, 1) the nurses 'badge' for that hospital, or the more likely 2) someones mark, the badge meaning 'Done that'
Isn't it amazing that hospitals use the same colour scheme the world over?
The level of dereliction was proportionate to the floor we were on, top floor was water damaged, and bottom floors were piked & stripped by workers, inbetween was in nice enough condition.
In the treatment wing, approx lvl.3, was this giant pile of Original, handmade in Milan, Sanatorium wear. there were full outdoors working jackets, smart jackets, 100% wool pants, undergarments, and I'm pretty sure there was a woolen shirt (one for dweeb I think). Most of it was awesome, but the others were not really interested in it, I was, and I have a job for anybody that can sew
not a brilliant photo, but I was trying to demonstrate the differences in building techniques between UK and italy hospitals, and YET, amazingly, the finished products look SO SIMILAR from the inside, smell the same too!
another staircase, I really needed a 10mm to do these place justice
Nearly at the end of our sanatorio explore, Larey came running upto me & Urbanfox, clutching an xray of someones pelvis, he was pretty much jumping up and down with excitement. He tried to explain that there was a fully fledged xray machine next door, and there was! AMAZING!
as all four of us entered the room, it came to all of us at the same time...
'we must get naked in this room now'
Of course, as per page3 shots, there was for the first time mixed gender group nudity in an international setting noless! Took quite a few 'attempt's to get this looking decent, but apart from the obvious nudity, it was just plain fun.
After the nudity, we nearly walked into some builders, looked at the entrance hall (grand with indoor fountains and several more tonnes of gleeming white marble), then made our exit.
we went into the adjacent woods, started a fire, and toasted marshmallows whilst laughing to ourselves at what we had just done.
Big thanks to Speed, Larey & the smelly ginge for making it a very memorable trip, there were great highs, and gobsmacking lows, but we did it, 8days on 80euro and sleeping bags only
And I fucking love italy, theres even a BUS STOP outside the explores.
