Caprese Salad in Montepulciano.
Hailey hates it when I do this “list/best of” crap, but it’s in my DNA. After all, I feel I can celebrate a little. Back in April we went to Italy for three weeks to commemorate our fifth anniversary. An outstanding trip, something I’m really glad we did now despite that horrid Euro-to-dollar exchange rate. Oh well. Travel is never something to regret, and the flat-screen TV can always wait.
I digress. I’m celebrating because I’ve reached a milestone with the Italy images. We shot 5,401 pictures, edited that down to a “reasonable” 4,754, color corrected the best 957, and placed the best 480 in a slideshow to inflict upon friends and family (those poor, poor people). This weekend I uploaded the last of the 345 best images to our stock agency, Photoshelter, for vetting and licensing. That only took three months.
So, to celebrate, genuflect, and in general overwhelm you, I thought I’d post the top shots and tell a bit of their story. As always, you can click on each photo for a larger view.
So enjoy…or “I’m sorry.”
The view from the Hotel La Minervetta’s patio. That’s rosemary on steroids and Mount Vesuvius in the distance.
Positano at dusk, seen from the patio of Le Sirenuse. We didn’t stay there, but despite their reputation as one of the top 10 hotels in the world, the staff was totally cool with us loitering and taking pictures for an hour. The Sirens apparently lived on the islands in the distance. A likely story.
Offertory candles in the duomo of Amalfi.
After the Amalfi Coast we went back to Sorrento for a night. This enabled us to spend an afternoon on the Isle of Capri, which was semi-worth it. We had three hours, we rushed things, and its Capri…the kind of place where Pierce Brosnan walks around wearing all white linen outfits, right? However, the island is gorgeous and its the birthplace of Caprese salad, so it ain’t all accessory dogs and mani-pedis for the jetset.
On the boat ride back into Sorrento’s harbor, this wicked thunderstorm developed just as the sun was setting, creating the unreal scene above. It’s just so perfectly Italian — dramatic, rough around the edges, yet stately. Italy is one of those rare places where you can see man enhance a natural setting with architecture, and the manors on the cliffs of Sorrento Harbor is one such sight.
Part 2 will come later this week….
We visited Italy last year and I must say, it made a difference having the freedom of a car, we hired one for two weeks and saw so much more, we d quite a bit of time and convenience getting here and moving on. We really had a great time there, We are thinking of coming back.
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