Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Images of Italy

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Abordage - that applies to all of us and no one can do anything about it. Instead of cultivating a bad mood, we'd rather make the best of it. This thread here is meant to provide a tiny bit of help to keep up the spirit.

Setting: Umbria, May 2015. We became aware that a similarly serious photographer, Francesco, had also rented a house next door to the one that we'd rented in Castelluccio. He was a friendly man from D'Aosta northern Italy, who'd brought his wife and young son along for the trip. During the week, we continued to cross paths with Francesco here and there, and began to share various tips about local photo ops. For example, I revealed to him the location of a nearby ancient Roman water well where foxes often congregated for a drink. A few days later, Francesco had even more cause to respect us as serious-amateur shutterbugs after discovering that we too, had risen before sunrise to hike part-way up the mountains in pursuit of the best perspective to shoot one of Castelluccio's famed and thermal inversions---the entire hilltop village and surrounding park valley was immersed in a sea of milky mist, a truly amazing, world-class foto op.

Fast forward to the morning of our mutual departures. Francesco took a second from packing up his vehicle to summon us over. He handed us each one of his business cards which identified him as an official National Geographic photographer! And then, wait for it......showed us copies of the half-dozen coffee-table photo books that he had published over the years. The latest of which was his book all about Estonian foxes!

I am done. The end.

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Just a light snack in Urbino.

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I partigiani vivono! - Castello, Venezia

Footnote from my Castelluccio Foto Story: it was the aforementioned National Geographic photographer Francesco-from-d'Aosta's 4 yr old son who first placed those poppy petals above into the fountain!
I am done. the end.

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These Ladies Need No Introduction