It's called urbex, an abbreviation of urban exploration, and it consists of exploring — often by infiltrating — abandoned places that are largely unknown to the general public and yet wonderful. Absolute gems of architectural and artistic beauty, forgotten and left to themselves and to neglect. Places that can still move, astonish and amaze, and that are reborn thanks in part to photography and filming. More than a hobby, more than a passion, doing urbex means loving deeply what surrounds us, the artistic and socio-cultural heritage of a country, Italy, that sometimes fails to notice how much it possesses, how much it is worth, how marvellous it is.

Davide Soliani, a young Milanese man who has been devoted to urbex for years, tells us what this way of exploring, loving the territory and sharing beauty — however abandoned — means to him.

Urbex is curiosity and a love of beauty

Many people practise it, this urban exploration, on the boundary between legality and curiosity. Soliani is driven by curiosity, by a love of the beauty that the Italian territory can offer, and by a passion for photography. His photographic and exploration project, called Alisei memories, is a fully fledged cultural association that spreads beauty.

It all began almost by chance, riding along country roads on a motorbike, being drawn by curiosity to abandoned villas along the way, recalling childhood games when inaccessible or forbidden places were explored. Once a beautiful abandoned place is discovered, one feels the need to immortalise it, to give it almost a new life through a photograph or a video, and also to share it. Many urbex practitioners (as some call themselves) become collectors of places: they chase down locations that have never been captured by anyone else; others, like Soliani, savour the wonder they discover but above all want to share it and spread it, almost as a way of alerting those who do not know what is hidden there. So that it becomes accessible to everyone, even if abandoned and forgotten.

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A country of wonders and abandonment

The places explored and yet to be explored are extremely varied: from entire villages that have become ghost towns, to abandoned aristocratic villas, from decommissioned factories to forgotten castles. Our country is full of these wonderful realities, now unknown and left to their own devices. From this increasingly popular activity, opportunities can also arise to denounce the current state of decay affecting vast swathes of the territory.

Soliani began some time ago to make known the places he discovered through a website, a Youtube channel, an Instagram page and Facebook. Some people are simply intrigued by the stunning images; others embark on their own urban exploration; and it even happens that local councils themselves wish to collaborate with someone who has shown passion and interest in these places.

The risks of urbex

It is worth warning anyone captivated by this exploratory activity that there are also risks involved in practising it: by its very nature, urbex entails physical dangers and the possibility of breaking the law, with the inevitable attendant sanctions, both financial and criminal. In several countries, in fact, certain behaviours connected with urban exploration may violate national laws, local regulations and more or less liberal interpretations of anti-terrorism legislation, or may also be regarded as unlawful trespass or violations of privacy. Yet the intentions are, in reality, almost always noble.