Beautiful Stairs in Abandoned House. by Roman Robroek - Photos of Abandoned Buildings

My recent solo-trip to Italy almost ended in disaster. The second day of my trip was going really well, and I was way ahead of schedule. I had a lot of time left before sunset, so I decided to drive to the location that I planned on photographing first thing the next morning. This would help my schedule for the next day, because it was packed.

I parked my car, and ventured my way through a thick forest in an attempt to reach the location (an abandoned house with a beautiful staircase). It was slippery because it had rained that day, there were plants with thorns everywhere, and there was no clear path to follow, so I was using my GPS tracker to figure out how to reach the house. It took me a while to find the house, and I slipped a few times on the way, but when I finally reached it and saw an open door at the back side, I was relieved.

I looked inside and saw a small staircase on the right. Thinking that would be the entrance to the building, I stepped inside. Then, out of nothing, the floor beneath me disappeared. I was lucky those beams were strong enough to hold me, and I was able to grab them. Otherwise, I'd be lying a few meters down, in the cellar of the house. To get up, I tried reaching for the banisters, but those were also very unstable. So I had to push myself up on the beams. They were making squeaky noises, and I was scared they wouldn't hold me. Thankfully, they did, and I got away with some bruises, scratches, very dirty clothes and a high dose of adrenaline. I never thought this would happen to me, and always thought I'd have enough time to react. Everything happened in a split second.

The actual entrance turned out to be on the other side of the house, and the main staircase was a beauty to photograph. On the way back to the car, I got lost in the woods, and hugged a couple thorn bushes. The trouble to taking a photo sometimes ...