The Childhood Road: Rudas

When I was a little child, I used to live in a very small, boring, narrow-minded town which I genuinely despised. My parents had a house in the much bigger and more lively costal town, Alghero, which I loved instead. When we went there for the week end or for the summer holidays, I was always overjoyed and enjoyed the road we drove through. Along it were four “case cantoniere”, the houses where road track inspectors used to live in isolation when it was too difficult and expensive to drive to work every day. Those houses, which are today mostly abandoned, were painted a distinctive bright red. This unique look, together with the fact I saw them while going to a pleasant place, made me love them especially. I’ve been wanting to picture them ever since I started with photography, and last April, during the Easter break, my mother drove me and I finally had the chance.

Rudas is the fourth and final house on the road. As it is the closest to the town, it kept a fresher look than the others, and I think it might still be inhabited today. Its plaster was always fresh and bright, which I loved, except for a few crumbled bits which my mother explained to me were due to the salty, wetter climate closer to the sea. It hasn’t changed much, except for the prickly pears on the roof. It was raining quite heavily while I shot it, so I captured a handful of raindrops in the image.

Photo: GothicNarcissus Photography