the beautiful sacro bosco in the center of italy was designed by vicino orsini in the 16th century to be a deeply magical experience, an enchanted forest not dissimilar to the ones from fables or dreams. rough sculptures - now covered in dirt and moss - emerge from the stones of the grove, depicting mythological creatures and monsters; but also elements like the purposefully leaning house, the remains of a theatre stage, the engravings and the textual inscriptions all contribute to an authentic aura of mystery which transcends the test of time.

i want to zoom in in particular on the inscriptions, which serve both as orsini's guide through the park and as a way of artistic expression. it must be noted that these texts are intended to be complementary to the surroundings, and some of them can only be understood after contextualization; however, i believe that the untranslated inscriptions, even taken by themselves, are a bizarre example of beautiful, dreamy & rough italian poetry. the inscriptions which were not easily visible or readable during my visit were sourced from other websites^[1][2].