It is 65 years since Gairo Vecchio was retired and became the Town Time Forgot.

Constructed on unstable ground, the town in the Sardinian hills wasn’t completed long before things started to go badly wrong.

Some houses fell apart, others began to sink or lean, and bad floods didn’t do much to help the situation.

The locals’ solution was to simply abandon the whole place, and rebuild their town a mile farther up the hills.

Today, Gairo Sant’Elena is still standing, thankfully, and the townspeople love their home — and some still fondly recall the other Gairo, Vecchio, now turning to rubble.

As lime was used to make part of the ghost town, it has a distinctive look.

Gairo comes from the Greek for flowing ground, and it seems that the ground below it just flowed a bit too much. The “new” town, of course, is better-protected against landslides.

The insides of houses at Gairo Vecchio are mainly in very-light blues and pinks, faded more by the elements after their windows fell out and roofs caved in.

It’s certainly a spooky experience, and tourists love it as a stark alternative to the picture-perfect appearance of Sardinia’s major towns.