After a restorative coffee in Piazza Venezia, we walked past Trajan’s Column and Forum, gorgeous in the evening light.
We ate (a lot!) at a nearby restaurant called Massenzio; a bit pricey, but excellent. The spaghetti with shrimp and pecorino di fossa (sheep’s milk cheese aged in caves) was amazing. And we hadporcini again. Then, to aid digestion, we walked to the Fontana di Trevi (no, this is not Tony!):
Imaging in Italy Day 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 4.5 – 5 – visit the Imaging in Italy site
Oct, 2006 : Tony got a review in the Guardian
I spent the week of October 12-18 in Rome,on Tony Boccaccio’s Imaging in Italy course, a wonderful, fun experience that I heartily recommend to anyone wishing to improve photography skills OR, even if you’re not an experienced photographer, if you want to do something completely different in Rome – and bring home some amazing photographs of your very own.
I was supposed to arrive Sunday afternoon for an introductory session and dinner. Upon reaching Lecco station at 6:30 am, I learned that there was a railway strike, and my train to Milan was two hours late – no chance of making the connection for the Eurostar from Milan to Rome. So I rebooked for the next day, arriving Monday at noon (which required waking up at 4:30 am). Two other course participants had been held up trying to get to Rome from Venezia, so the welcome dinner Sunday was postponed to a welcome lunch on Monday.
I got to Hotel Alessandrino just in time for the end of a morning session on Visual Thinking. Then we all picked up our cameras (mine is a Nikon Coolpix 775 digital) and walked down to Saint Peter’s. Along the way, I grabbed the above shot of a man on stairs.
Piazza San Pietro was being decorated and filled with chairs for the Pope’s 25th anniversary bash. This was not a problem, as we were avoiding standing in the middle of the circle and taking postcard shots. Instead, we first walked around the colonnade, looking for different ways of seeing and showing what we saw, with Tony offering suggestions, and taking pictures of us taking pictures. I was fascinated with architecture and geometry, so there was plenty to keep me busy.
We finally got our welcome lunch, at the Antica Taverna (via Monte Giordano 12). The antipasti were excellent, and, of the three pasta dishes we tried, my favorite were the orecchiette (“little ears”) with a sauce made from sweet bell peppers.
When we finally staggered away from the table, I accompanied my coursemates to the Spanish Steps, the Keats museum, and on other wanderings.
Imaging in Italy Day 1 2 – 3 – 4 – 4.5 – 5
visit the Imaging in Italy site
Our first activity Tuesday morning was a review of Monday’s (digital) photos, with expert commentary and pointers from Tony. He went on to talk about other aspects of imaging, but I confess I wasn’t paying as much attention as I should, distracted by these fuzzy little Romans:
After lunch (at an excellent, old-fashionedosteria, da Alfredo e Ada, via Banchi Nuovi 14) we started walking and shooting again,to Piazza Navona. This time I was looking for details:
…but was still attracted by architecture:
People were also interesting. We chased the group in the photo at the top down several streets to get them, with their little red hats, in front of the Pantheon.
In the evening we went to the Villa Borghese gardens. The plan was to view the sunset from the Belvedere, but we were so busy making photos of everything else that by the time we got there the sun was completely gone. However, we got some interesting evening views of the Piazza del Popolo below.
We walked down the hill and ate at Ristorante al Vantaggio, good food and a good red wine, something local (Lazio region) made with Montepulciano and Sangiovese grapes.
Imaging in Italy Day 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 4.5 – 5 – visit the Imaging in Italy site
Tony saved the best for last: on Thursday we went to the Colosseum and Forum. There was so much to photograph that we didn’t even do the full tour; we saw the Colosseum only from the outside (I’d been inside before), then went into the Forum. Plenty of architecture here:
But also details:
We descended from the Campidoglio, with its statues of Castor and Pollux (no, I don’t know which one this is):
previous day – later that evening
visit the Imaging in Italy site
On Wednesday we took a train to Viterbo, a town with some unusual Gothic architecture. The symbol of Viterbo is the lion, which you can find in various incarnations all over town.
Evidently the town went through some rough times; some of these lions look awfully worried. Clovis Aquino, a painter who accompanied us on many of the shoots, was our expert guide to Viterbo and its history. When I mentioned the lions, he theorized that perhaps they were worried because Viterbo had once been the seat of the popes, who by that time had definitively won out over the lions!
We had lunch at a trattoria. Aquacotta (“cooked water”) belies its name; it’s a vegetable soup with bread and cheese – very filling!
Then we walked off our lunch, making more photos.
We returned to Rome in the evening and rested for a bit, then had dinner at Gigetto, a restaurant in Rome’s ghetto, famous for its traditional Italian Jewish dishes such as carciofi alla giudia (Jewish artichokes). We also had porcini (wild mushrooms), currently in season. Yum!
Imaging in Italy Day 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 4.5 – 5 – visit the Imaging in Italy site
