Suggestions for Italy

[lightranger]

Don,
You will find that most everywhere in Italy is great to photograph. We have made several trips there is the past few years. We always rent a car and get lost on the small back roads just photographing our way around. The cities can be very difficult to drive in, so you might want to avoid them and take a train in. We have never had a problem getting a Hotel room (even in August) at the end of the day after roaming the country side photographing. Don't forget the south of Italy, it has some very beautiful mountain towns with a lot of charactor. Have fun and be safe. John

 

[Ole]

"Suggestions for Italy"?

Just go there. Go anywhere. Except for possibly Milan, you will enjoy it (I only lasted 2 hours in Milan before I jumped on the first train out, and spent the rest of my vacation in Verona). Verona is nice. So are about 10 000 other places.
Find some other reason to travel around, and just take the scenery where you find it (I travelled by wine maps).

 

[S_Patton]

Driving in Italy...an experience not forgotten for sure

The key to driving in Italy is to remember that they are taught offensive driving where we are taught defensive driving. When you end up in one of their famous traffic ordeals of ten lanes of traffic crammed into a road with only two lanes, the thing to remember is not to look at another driver. If you do, you're telling him you are going to let him ahead of you. Always watch the road ahead and DO NOT make eye contact with another driver in Italy...you do that there will be an accident and Americans involved in accidents are usually automatically at fault...I learned the hard way. In fact my car was parked in a parking space, a delivery truck ran OVER 9literally) my car while I was working inside in an office. The judge's ruling? If me...a silly American...hadn't been parked there the accident would not have happened. My insurance had to pay for the delivery truck's new paint job.
Don't want to scare anyone out of driving in Italy, but the best thing you can do is learn their rules of the road and just be extremely careful when parked.

 

[Wally H]

Driving it Italy has never been a particular problem for me, maybe it's all'ya'lls approach to it. Sure it's a bit more hectic than many areas of the USA. I always down 5 or 6 expresso just prior to getting behind the wheel. It helps me get things in perspective and become more flexable in my approach to getting there.

 

[ongarine]

Dear Donald,
you have many suggestions by all foreigners...now it is time for an Italian
Your visit will depend from these three factors:
- in which seasons you will be here
- what you want photograph
- your way to move
Weather in full summer is hot in most part of Italy, wet and muggy in the plain and interior of land, more fresh and windy on the seacost, very hot in the south. The light during summer days is nvery strong and not the best to take photos, best early morning and the dusk. A better light is during spring and fall in quite every part of Italy.
Italy is one of the most photographed country in this world, it is narrow and small and everyone in the last 150 years that come here with a camera demand to make pictures to remember...this is the Home of Pitoresco in the 95% of the istances. Most of the photos were all done through the years and a huge amount of postcards, tourist guide and books have always the same photos.
The way you will move will influence your possibility to make pictures.
If you planned to came with LF you will need a small car to drive in the places you will visit, if you have MF you can also to take train, bus adn pubblic transport, could be a new way to see Italy with patience!
All the stories (too much and commonplaces9 about Italian drivers make me smile and thinking I'm lucky to have drove safe in this country in the last 35 years .
I don't make you a list of places to visit, it could make more confusion and I invite you to make a sort of planning of places you really want to photograph and visit and then after that I can give you my experiences of Italian photographer.

 

[Donald Miller]

Thanks to everyone for your well thought and presented recommendations. I appreciate it.

I will definitely be located out of Milan. The availablility of accomodations make this possible. I will be traveling out of Milan to other locations. Tuscany, Venice and Sicily come to mind of places that I would like to photograph. I will definitely be bringing LF equipment for my efforts. I will also bring MF for street photography (people images).

I don't want to make typical tourist type photographs...that would include most landscapes. I would tend to want to photograph aspects of form...that would include some architectural, some industrial, as well as the people in smaller villages.

My time of visit seems to be coming together for May 1 through July of this year. Since I will not have darkroom facilities available, I will return to the states to develop film and print during the cooler part of the year here in Phoenix (Sept - Jan)

I understand that I will need an automobile to transport myself around. Is the use of a tripod a problem? My Zone VI has spiked feet and I wonder about that.

Considering your comments Ongarine, I think that initial forays to scout locations via public transportation with Mf would be appropriate...followed by travel back to photograph with the LF if I find interest sufficient to warrant that. Does that seem reasonable to you?

 

[DWThomas]

One comment -- I vaguely recall that some of the old historic sections of cities are closed to auto traffic; sometimes entirely, sometimes a special permit may get you in. (I never needed to know as we traveled by train.) That restriction could affect your travel in some cities.

DaveT

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Donald- another item of food for thought - certainly appropriate in Milan, as it happened to me there. I was shooting some street-type photos with my Hasselblad, including the inside of the big Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. I stopped outside a restaurant to reload film, and I got the filthiest looks from the waitstaff, and got shooed away. Ergo, there may be places where street photography may NOT be appreciated there, even when you think you're in the clear.

 

[ongarine]

Donald,
to scout locations with MF and a road trip with public transportation could be good for places like Venice and Tuscany that will take you half a day of train to reach them. For Sicily far 1000 Km. from Milan the best is to go with the LF if you want not to waste time and chances. I think the best way is a get a jet from Milan to Palermo and then rent a car. Take note that in Venice you will have only your feet and public or private boats, no cars, no motorcycles, no bus: only cats, dogs pigeons and pedestrians. Downtonw Venice is interesting, but the small islands in the Laguna are fascinating.
For some industrial Milan is the right place and the suburbs too, it is an extensive or diffuses city in which suburbs are not different from some parts of the town, remember that every Italian town has an historic part.
Architecture is everywhere, some historical, some modern, less contemporary, it depends from you taste. It is true that some old historic sections of cities are closed to auto traffic, you will find all around pay parking in which to let the car, be sure to have maps of the town you want visit because you will need to know how long you will have to carry your equipment. For Venice you will arrive in the town with the train and then boats and legs carry you everywhere even in very isolated places.
Normally hot weather starts in the last days of June and July could be extremely hot, take note of this for your trip and photos.
To avoid typical tourist type photographs you can make a long survey in the web or in your personal library about photos, images and snapshots made in Italy, you will have a perfect situation of what is abused, but also some good and usefull motivating forces to pursue.
People in smaller villages could be one of the best example of the grim Pitoresco, if they still exist in that shape.....
During your trip to East you will pass from Verona going or coming from Venice and if you will decide to stop to have a visit to the town (it will worth) we could meet and have a dinner, or an Italian lunch

 

[NikoSperi]

Welcome Donald

Welcome to the arm pit of Italy!
Milan will most likely not be the reason for your spike in film consumption, as you know. But chosing it as a base is a great thing, as the only redeeming factor in Milan is the ease with which one can get the f#ù! out of it, and into somewhere photogenic.
With what you have ruled out and six months at your disposal, you will most likely still be pressed for time, depending on what you're looking for. The Dolomites come to mind, as do the lakes just north of here. Rome, Sardinia, street, people, fashion... the choice is endless and the food sure to blow you away!
Drop me a line when you're in town and sorely disappointed with this lovely (sic) town, or need some addresses for film/labs... coffee, whatever.

 

[Gay Larson]

Donald,
How wonderful for you to be able to stay 3 months in my favorite place. Italy is beautiful everywhere you go and I am sure you could find something wonderful to photograph no matter where you are. I love Rome so don't discount is entirely. I think Sorento is wonderful and Florence. I love the narrow street scenes and all the squares with flowers everywhere. The people in Italy are generally warm and welcoming and the Food, oh the Food. Have a great time.

 

[Ole]

I'm giving this thread a bump instead of starting a new one:

My wife and I will be flying into Milan in the beginning of april, and intend not to spend more time there than we have to until we go home a week or so later. Well - unless we can get tickets to La Scala...

So far we haven't decided where to go. We've been to Verona before, and might go back. Or we might go west. Or south, or north. Since we don't have much more than a week, we'll probably have to decide on one direction...

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Ole- check out Torino if you're traveling from Milan. Not far away by train, and there are some interesting things to see and do there too, despite what the Rough Guide seems to think. Genoa is also within striking distance, and worth a peek.

 

[MAGNAchrom]

I will be heading off to Italy within the next couple of months. I plan on staying at least three months...possibly as much as six months. I will be based in Milan. I am looking for suggestions of places to photograph. Aside from Tuscany, Florence, Venice, and Sicily, what other places would you recommend?

No question you need to go to Cinque Terre. Lots of hiking around there. Easy train ride from Milano.

Here's a shot from Monterosso:

Best of luck!

 

[NikoSperi]

If you reach Verona

why not push on a bit further? You have Sirmione and Desenzano del Gardo on the lago Maggiore right around the corner, and then push onwards to Venice! Still have time and itchy foot? Head two hours north from Venice to Cortina d'Ampezzo, Val Pusteria, anywhere in the Dolomites.
Wish I had the time, as I'm envious... and I'm in Milan, so I can but subscribe your desire to get the hell out of it as fast as possible.:rolleyes:

 

[ongarine]

Ole you deserve a red bottle of wine, do you remember?
You can get it in Verona......after Easter if you will be there.

 

[George Papantoniou]

Donald, I have to say that I envy you too... Italy comes closer to get my favorite place to visit every time I go there. But, I would make a different suggestion, since last summer I was there... one of the most beautiful places in Europe (IMHO) that is currently under French occupation, Corsica. It's easily reachable from Livorno (and Genoa) and it's worth spending a full month visiting (of a lifetime ). Once there, you will not want to leave, so I suggest that you do this trip near the end of your stay in Italy (otherwise you will not visit Italian places). Sardegna is nice, but not as dense and interesting as Corsica. And it is under Italian occupation for the time being :rolleyes: ...

I guess that Sicily is a must, too.

Ole, I would suggest a week in Tuscany. If I only had one week, I'd do that. Florence is great but touristic, the landscape is beautiful and the wine is sublime, providing that you know which one to choose (there are unfortunately many low quality wines available for suckers and tourists).

 

[George Papantoniou]

Dear Don,

I'll probably get slammed for being negative, but really BE CAREFUL ON THE ROADS. The first time I ever went to Italy I'd been there 45 minutes when I was rear-ended (on the motorcycle) and Frances was thrown over my head; the second time, a few years later, I took the Land Rover for obvious reasons. Two things stick in my memory. One is that if Frances had opened the car door a fraction of a second later in a car park, one car-width from the wall, she's have lost a leg to the idiot who shot between us and the wall at 40 mph. The other is that on a tour of maybe 3000 to 4000 miles though half a dozen or more countries, we saw five serious, possibly fatal accidents in Italy and none anywhere else (France, Slovenia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Germany, Luxembourg).

Yes, we got lots of good pictures while Frances was recuperating in Aoste from the first accident. Just sit in any square, in any village, at a café table or even on a park bench, and you can get incredible people shots (not usually with LF, I'll grant you). And with LF you can shoot what I call the 'hand of man': hilltop villages, terraced walls, rag-cut slate roofs, dry-stone walls, all kinds of things where people have gently and sustainably modified the countryside for thousands of years. I find this much more attractive than what I call 'empty' or 'pseudo-wilderness' landscapes.

But on the road, BE CAREFUL. The Italians are the worst and most aggressive drivers I've found anywhere, including Greece, Mexico, Malta and even China.

Cheers,

R.

Roger, I feel deeply offended. There is not a place in Europe where driving is more dangerous than Greece. Italian drivers are aggressive, but know how to drive. Every time I drive in Italy I feel I (finally) am in the company of people who have driving skills and put them in practice in some of the nicest streets there are. Yes, you can easily have an accident, especially if you're one of those slow-moving nerd tourists that think that they have the right to occupy a part of the Great Italian Freeways and Streets. But in Greece, you can have an accident if you drive correctly (that is, the Italian way). Greece has the worst roads you can find in Europe, the worst mean condition of vehicles circulating and the worst drivers with the worst habits (50-60% of them talk almost continuously on their phones while driving, 80% of them think they can stop their car ANYWHERE to do an errand, even on main avenues and freeways or completely blocking the traffic).

I demand that you take back what you've said and place Greece at the top of Europes worst places to drive immediately, or else I will be forced to kidnap you from your small French village and force you to spend a month in Athens driving a car 8 hours a day, something that I seriously doubt that you can go through at your age ...

 

[Ole]

First stage of the trip is planned and booked: Two nights in Asti.

So the question now is where do we go next? From Nebbiolo to Corvina, or Sangiovese?

 

[No Digital]

Time for italians #3

Hello.
First of all sorry for my bad English, but I'll try to do my best...
I live in Genoa and, both for Don and Ole, if you need someone to go with I'll be happy to carry you in my nearbies, or inside Genoa; just contact me.
Last september I received another photographer from Colorado and we went in the western part of Liguria in a little ghost village (destroyed by an earthquake at the end of '800) called Bussana Vecchia, near Sanremo; LF recomended.
Another ghost village, very near to Genoa, is Pentema; LF highly recomended.
If you want to go to Cinque Terre too do it but it's better not in week-ends, not to find a lot of people and tourists.
A must for a LF photographer are the marble caves near Carrara, Tuscany.
And then... enjoy everything you will find along your trip, probably it's the best way to feel the image

 

[No Digital]

First stage of the trip is planned and booked: Two nights in Asti.

So the question now is where do we go next? From Nebbiolo to Corvina, or Sangiovese?

First of all: if in Asti please don't drink only Nebbiolo but Moscato too (sweet dessert wine)
Then: for my tastes I prefer Corvina ( + Rondinella = Amarone di Valpolicella)

 

[ongarine]

From Nebbiolo to Corvina trip could be on the tracks of Scaligeri.
They dominated Verona for more than 100 years (1262-1387) and the enormous memories you have are the Palazzi Scaligeri (the most huge 1300 building in Italy) now completely restored, in the heart of Verona and some wonderful castles in the land around Verona. Following fortress you can taste Lugana in the first castle: Sirmione**** on the lake of Garda, then going north on the board of the lake you will arrive in Malcesine****other breathless castle and with some more Km until the Adige valley you can discover and hidden gem of North wines: Enantio looking at one of the allied of Scaligeri: the Avio*** castle.
Going to south you will arrive in the heart of Valpolicella, no castles but Corvina everywhere, some wonderful renaissance Villas**** there and the triumph for your mouth....if you have enough time your trip will bring you, going east and passing from Verona, in the castle of Soave***where you will have the opportunity to taste this wine excellent when it is not made for exportation
Here some usefull links:
Lugana Dead Link Removed
Enantio http://www.terradeiforti.it/enantio.htm
Ville della Valpolicella Dead Link Removed
Soave http://www.stradadelsoave.com/
For the road from Asti to Sangiovese please have patience it will come.

 

[Ole]

First of all: if in Asti please don't drink only Nebbiolo but Moscato too (sweet dessert wine)
Then: for my tastes I prefer Corvina ( + Rondinella = Amarone di Valpolicella)

Not only Nebbiolo (Barolo, Barbaresco) and Moscato and Barbera and Dolcetto, but it just happens that the hotel we've booked is in the area of the Ruchè di Castagnole Monferrato. Which I've never heard about before, and that is always an exellent reason for tasting.

We've discovered there is a small botanical garden half way up the Monte Baldo, so since my wife has a keen interest in gardening, and especially alpine plants, the Verona area is getting more and more likely

and Amarone and Recioto and Recioto di Soave...

 

[No Digital]

Not only Nebbiolo (Barolo, Barbaresco) and Moscato and Barbera and Dolcetto, but it just happens that the hotel we've booked is in the area of the Ruchè di Castagnole Monferrato. Which I've never heard about before, and that is always an exellent reason for tasting.

We've discovered there is a small botanical garden half way up the Monte Baldo, so since my wife has a keen interest in gardening, and especially alpine plants, the Verona area is getting more and more likely

and Amarone and Recioto and Recioto di Soave...

Ruchè? really a nice wine to taste and drink

 

[Donald Miller]

Thanks to all of have commented further. I appreciate that you have shared the benefit of your knowledge and experience with me.

No Digital, if you would be so kind, please send me your contact information via a private message or an email so that I may contact you directly.

Thanks again.