Pienza
After our early morning shooting we came back to the hotel, packed up and loaded up into two small vans for our destination of the Piccolo Hotel in Pienza. We found the hotel to be charming with a beautiful view overlooking the hills and valleys of Tuscany. Pienza is located in the province of Siena, in the Val d'Orcia in Tuscany between the towns of Montepulciano and Montalcino. In 1996, UNECO declared the town a World Heritage Site and in 2004 the entire valley, the Val d"orcia was included in the list of UNESCO's World Cultural Landscapes. After having been there I can totally understand why.
The views don't get much better than this. Of course the camera cannot totally capture what the eye can see.
It was pizza for lunch. Out of all the pasta I ate my favourite was homemade pasta with tomato and a garlic sauce although the spicy tomato sauce was really really close. Actually come to think of it all of the food in Italy was delicious.
Everyone knows that pizza goes better with a glass of wine. Italy with its approximately 1,200 types of grapes produces one quarter of the world's wine. The VAL D'OCA brand is one of the famous Italian labels.
Whatever town I was in I liked to walk around and take pictures of the typical streets. This town was quieter than most. The estimated population is about 2,000 residents.
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A few photos of all of the colour in the town. Of all of the towns we visited in Tuscany this one was my favourite. |
Meet Brenda Tharp, one of the two leaders of the photo tour. It was fun to watch Brenda and try to figure out what interesting things she was finding to photograph. There was always something different that she found.
The next few images were taken from the town which overlooks the hills and valleys of Tuscany. It was great being able to photograph the countryside without having to leave the town.
I could easily spend the spring in Tuscany (or longer). I'm thinking the summers would be just way too busy.
This photo was taken in honour of my friend Pam. Pretty much every time I saw a cat, I would think of her and all of the cats we photographed in the Amalfi Coast.
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One advantage to walking around with Gretchen was she always saw everything. So when she stopped to shoot something you paid attention. In this case it was this delightful cat. |
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Pienza was rebuilt from a village called Corsignano which was the birthplaces (1405) of Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini who later became Pope Pius II. Once he became pope, he had the entire village rebuilt as an ideal Renaissance town. The urban planning concepts that went into this town were adopted in other Italian towns and cities and eventually other European centers. The Duomo (Cathedral) dominates the centre of the piazza. |
I walked around the piazza and watched the people. You can see from some of the people wearing jackets that it was not quite summer weather yet but perfect for walking around. I seem to remember that the temperatures were around 15-18 degrees celsius.
Gretchen and I went into this leather shop and watched the man work for a while. He had no problems with us taking a few pictures of him.
The interesting thing about these medieval towns is that they don't change. Sure you might see people with cell phones but the towns stays pretty much the same.
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This little girl was enjoying her ice-cream.
Of course I had to include a doggy picture especially after the cat ones. Maggie and Katie would not be pleased at all.
In my travels I came across this cute little girl.
Her brother and her were having lots of fun. |
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Resting in the sunshine was just too tempting for Chris. Unfortunately it was time to move on again to meet the rest of the group for the later afternoon shooting. Did I mention that there is no such thing as time-out? On these photo tours so you have to grab a short nap when the opportunity arises.