Visiting an Insane Asylum with my Photography Class

My photography teacher usually takes us to art exhibits and they are usually not very interesting, but today he took us to an "abandoned" insane asylum and I loved it. I put "abandon" in quotes because most of it is abandoned but there are still a couple buildings that are occupied by those with mental illnesses. The institution has the patients use art as a form of treatment and I must say, some of them are extremely talented. There was a man walking around with a cat and he was very camera shy. He hid behind a bush for the longest time with his cat and every couple of minutes he would peek his head out to see if I had put my camera away. I snapped a picture of him, but after I got one I put it away and he came out. I smiled and said "ciao" and he replied back with a simple "ciao." He walked around the entire time I was there but I only took one picture out of respect for him. There was also an abandoned orphanage that we went into and as we were walking around we found a homeless man that has been living in there for the past few years. I cannot begin to describe the horrible stench of his "house" but once we got past that we noticed all of his artwork and he, too, is an extremely gifted painter.  It was really interesting to just walk around watch the people who live there, I really wish I could have stayed longer and I wish my Italian was good enough to actually carry on a conversation with them.