Welcome to Tuscany

We took our leave of the Cinque Terre, and embarked on the long drive to Tuscany. This was punctuated by two interactions with our host at Cinque Terre, first when he discovered that one of the keys had not been handed back, and then when the same member of the party (who shall remain nameless to share his blushes) discovered that he had also left his passport behind in the room. Cue three days of intermittent but extensive research into the options for courier services between Italy’s tourist regions.

We arrived in time to dump our bags at the very nice Hotel Casanova in San Quirico D’Orcia, and then head out to what has become known globally as "The Gladiator Mansion", due to its use in the final scene of Gladiator. As I’ve just purchased the Blu-ray of that film to watch before the prequel is released next month, it will be interesting to compare how Sir Ridley captured it compared with my attempt. I do know that he probably paid a sufficient fee to not have a little red tractor parked outside the front, whereas I had to cunningly hide it behind the tip of a cypress tree.

Our first full day in Tuscany dawned misty but with a fairly clear sky and we trooped literally next door into an olive grove which has an excellent view of another famous Tuscan location, The Belvedere. This is a popular dawn location, but I struggled to get an image I really liked. Once the sun is up you are shooting directly into it, so you either have to make your images somewhat before sunrise, with relatively little detail of The Belvedere itself, use a complicated arrangement of tripod and graduated filters, or adopt HDR techniques. I made the panorama below just before sunrise, it’s OK but not my best work.

Fortunately this wasn’t an issue for the rest of the day, which was clear and strongly lit. Our morning shoot was around the picturesque village of Lucignano d’Asso, and we ended up at the wonderful Cappella di Vitaleta. I was walking somewhat slowly, and arrived only just in time to get about 3 minutes of great light before the sun finally set, and my efforts were rewarded again on the walk back to the van, when we looked back to see an intense but small sunset, and my long lens probably captured it best.