The Roman Road The Val D’Orcia is one of the most famous valleys in the world even though the name itself may not mean much. Tourists have travelled the Roman road called the via Cassia since the 16th century on the Grand Tour, but before them it was trod by pilgrims on their way to […]
Cassia, Francigena, Grand-Tour, Italian hidden treasure, medici, radicofani, Tuscany, William Turner
Just outside Pitigliano lies the Parco Orsini commonly known locally as Stranglers Park, and thereby hangs a tale………… Orso Orsini was a prince of wild ways. Wayward brother of the cultured condottiero Niccolò, he married the beautiful Eleanora degli Atti di Morlupo, whose name was long but her life short. He strangled her in a […]
Bomarzo, Italy hidden treasure to photograph, Orso Orsini, photographic set, photography-workshop, Pitigliano, secret garden, Tuscany, Vicino Orsini
“Sunrise glowed red as I climbed along the gorge; when I reached the grove, I saw the altar slab all scattered with brightness, like the harper’s robe. I put down my load, and prayed to Apollo.” Poggio Conte will appear immediately familiar to anyone who has read Mary Renault’s The King Must Die, a novel […]
Etruscan cemetery, Italian hidden treasure, Italy hidden treasure to photograph, Poggio Conte, san colomba, Tuscany
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
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
The mysterious Etruscan Sacred Ways are exclusive to three southern Tuscan towns: Pitigliano, Sovana and Sorano. Some are very deep, up to an astonishing 20m, hewn out of solid rock by the Etruscans about 2500 years ago, and some paths are very long indeed; all of them are winding and twisting like the above. Why […]
cia cava, etruscan, Etruscan sacred way, Pitigliano, Sorano, Tuscany, via Cava san Rocco
The olive hasn’t much to do with photography other than that olive groves end up being in a lot of landscapes. However, olive oil is one of the good things of Italy that most people appreciate while here – Orvieto olive oil is one of the world’s best. The olive is a truly remarkable fruit […]
Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy, not just photography, olive, olive grove, olive oil, olive press, Orvieto, Orvieto olive oil, Tuscany, Umbria