My first trip to Italy was fabulous!! We started out in Rome and hit some of the hot spots: Vatican, Pantheon, Colosseum, Piazza Novona. It was so easy to get around and every time we turned a corner I was floored by the architecture, art, history, and of course the shoes!! After Rome we spent a week in Tuscany, mostly in Cortona with side trips to Assisi, Perugia, Foiano, and of course Florence. Have you seen the movie or read the book Under the Tuscan Sun? Cortona was the setting for this wonderful story. We stayed in a beautiful stone villa right above this beautiful walled city and spent a lot of time photographing and hanging out in the town center on the church steps people watching with cappuccino, gelato or panini in hand. The beautiful village was a little different than Francis Mayes describes in her book and as we talked to locals we learned sadly how the movie changed this town from a small locals based community to a Tuscan attraction. Home values rose, many Cortonians sold their homes andtook with them the small community based businesses. Now most of the businesses cater to Italian and foreign tourists (which made for great leather shopping) but to go to a market for staples or a pharmacy we (and Cortonians) now need to drive about 15 minutes to the next town. Like many Italian towns the population is really aging in Cortona as the young people who can’t find work have moved elsewhere. Still it was charming and wonderful but we felt sad to see how this wonderful book and the movie that followed impacted the local community. Next we spent five days in Venice. I loved St. Marks Square, Doges Palace, Rialto Bridge area, the glass blowing island of Murano and lace making, fishing village of Burano. We stayed in a beautiful apartment on the Venitian island of Giudecca where we got a wonderful more locals experience of the area away from the crowds. My favorite times in Venice were definitely early morning photography outings to catch the gorgeous light after sun rise and the golden hour of light before sunset on the water and over the ancient architecture, I loved walking the neighborhoods, being in St. Marks Square without all the crowds, riding the vaporetto and photographing in the most beautiful magical light of Venice! Check out some of my favorite shots in my slideshow below.
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