In the small town of Bomarzo, Italy (at the northern edge of the Lazio region), is a very, very strange place. In the 1500's, it was owned by the Orsinis, a very powerful and wealthy local family. An apparently very strange Orsini commissioned an equally strange architect to create bizarre statuary all over his estate's gardens, much of it carved out of the native rock. The subjects are mostly mythological creatures, though there's also an intentionally-leaning tower. It's pretty obscure, but, ever since reading about it in an architectural history class, I'd been wanting to see it. Unfortunately, it's been turned into something of a tacky tourist trap, but all that becomes irrelevant once one gets past the entrance and out into the gardens. It was originally called "Il Sacro Bosco" ("The Sacred Wood") in the 1500's, but now it's named "Il Parco dei Mostri" ("The Monster Park"). (That's me in from of the monster's mouth, in my long winter coat to ward off the December chill.)

This photo was taken by The Beloved Spouse (Joe)