Tag Archives: Tony Boccaccio

Imaging in Italy: A Photographic Walking Tour of Rome (and Viterbo) – Day 3

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 12344.55 – visit the Imaging in Italy site

Imaging in Italy: A Photographic Walking Tour of Rome

I spent the week of October 12-18 in Rome, on Tony Boccaccio’s Imaging inItaly 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.

NB: The tour when I did it was a week long, but Imaging in Italy now offers shorter sessions. Contact Tony for more information.

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.

Day 1

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 this shot:

Rome

Piazza San Pietro was being decorated and filled with chairs for the Pope’s 25th anniversary bash. This was not a problem, as we wereavoiding 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.

Colonnade of Saint Peter's

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.

Italian dinner - 3 pastas

When we finally staggered away from the table, I accompanied my coursemates to the Spanish Steps, the Keats museum, and on other wanderings.

next day