Tuscany Scenes, 2018
Tuscany looms in the imagination as an idyllic destination offering great vistas, great food, and great wine. For visitors, this image is pretty accurate. It is more or less the best place in the world to bike, eat, drink, and relax. As a result, it is being overrun by visitors and road traffic is faster, denser, and more threatening that it used to be; tourists flock and school through narrow streets and portals. Endless selfie-taking crowds document each corner and feature. But the reality remains: Tuscany is still more or less unmatched.
Here are some scenes from 2018.
Ancient olive trees still look anguished and arthritic.
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Front doors wear history proudly.
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Narrow portals (here, Volterra) lead to sweeping vistas overlooking distant hills.
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Volterra's gates are used by tourists (blissfully absent here) and locals.
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Volterra panorama in late afternoon
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After a lifetime of mainly expressing myself with words, my postings here will mainly rely on images. They will speak for themselves to some extent, but I'll usually add a few comments of explanation. I've taken photographs for decades, since the 1950's, inspired in part by my father's photographic skill. Four years of photo assignments and quality darkroom time eventually gave way to decades of casual and family picture-taking. I re-immersed myself when I left film and turned to digital.