One of the interesting lost sites within an hour of Orvieto we made a Camera Etrusca excursion to the hermitage of Ripatonna. Much of what is now known as northern Latium north of Rome on the borders of Tuscany was until the 1930s a veritable wilderness. Saracen pirates had scourged the area and malaria had […]
etruscan, Italian hidden treasure, Italy, Italy hidden treasure to photograph, not just photography, photo trip, photographic set, Ripatonna Cicognina, Tuscany
I have no idea why, but it was my dream as a child to find underground Roman ruins at the bottom of the garden. This dream was to come true when my wife and I moved to Castel Gandolfo in 2002. We rented a flat in the grounds of a villa once owned by Visconti, bought […]
bergantino, Castelgandolfo, diana baths, domitian, goddess diana, Italian hidden treasure, Italy, not just photography, photo trip, photographic set, Rome photo workshop
Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree’s shade Where heaves the turf in many a mould’ring heap Each in his narrow cell for ever laid The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep Gray’s Elegy in a Country Churchyard (written in Stoke Poges) The drift from the land from the 1950s onward has left many Italian villages […]
camposanto, cemetery, chianti, gray's elegy, Italian hidden treasure, not just photography, photo trip, photographic set
Rome is known as the Eternal City and no city on earth has a comparable wealth of ancient ruins. The tireless documentor of Roman ruins Piranesi (1720-78) made a good living selling his topographical images to visitors on the Grand Tour. But whereas Canaletto used lenses and the camera obscura to ensure that his views […]
Castelgandolfo, emissario, Italian hidden treasure, lake Albano, not just photography, photo trip, photographic set, Piranesi
Italy has an extraordinary amount of antiquities that are simply abandoned; no ticket office, no maintenance, no security, just overgrown. Sometimes I come across a place purely by chance, sometimes I have been tipped off by a local, sometimes because I have read about it and have made a search. I will endeavour to post […]
Alban Hills, Diana Temple, Genzano, Golden Bough, Italian hidden treasure, james Frazer, Nemi, not just photography, photo trip, photographic set, rome, Rome photo workshop, William Turner
Late Spring: The Season of Wildflower in Italy. Spring in Italy may have been slow in coming this year, but all that rain means even more wild flowers – especially poppies. Come to Tuscany and Umbria in June and you will see the brightest and most colourful wild flowers anywhere in Europe. Normally poppies last […]
Italian-holidays, photography-workshop, poppies-field, poppies-photos, Tuscany
Bill Emmott the former director of The Economist and long term thorn in Berlusconi’s side since he was unsuccessfully sued for libel after the magazine’s front cover said he was unfit to lead in Italy back in 2001, has made a film. The documentary about Italy and its ailing economy and woeful politics is called […]
bill emmott, economist, girlfriend coma, Orvieto, video about Orvieto
St Patrick’s well is one of the sights of Orvieto. And one of the places we always visit. It’s dark so a tripod is handy. The life of an Italian prince in Renaissance Italy was pretty dangerous and no less so for the clerical prince known as the pope. In 1527 after Rome had been […]
Orvieto, sangallo, St Patrick well