CORTONA: ITALIAN LANDSCAPES

The formal name of our tour of Italy was "Italian Landscapes."  Of course, the photos you see in the brochures are always done by a professional, generally with the best possible equipment, from the best possible vantage points, under the best possible conditions, and at the best possible time of day--generally the hours around sunrise or sunset.  (Yada, yada, yada)  I did get a few landscape photos along the way, but they were not of the quality to fulfill my fantasies of award-winning shots.  Some of those shots came during our stay in Cortona.  Here are a few.

I took this first shot during our longish walk to Bramasole, the villa featured in the book and movie, "Under the Tuscan Sun."

 
Marginal at best.  The next isn't much better, taken from a patio at our hotel.

Our hotel room in Cortona was not as spacious as at some of our other stays (read small), but it did have a great balcony overlooking the valley below the town.  And here are a few photos I took from our balcony.

Not a great shot, but, hey, if you look carefully, it was a double rainbow.

The following were a bit better, I thought.

Note the photobomb by the bird in the shot above.

This last shot, taken around sunrise, features Lake Trasimeno and the hills beyond.  There was some morning mist rising from the lake, but what caught my eye was the line of umbrella pines on the hill in the foreground.  The trees were a long way off, even with my 300 mm lens, so you need to use a little imagination.  Still, I liked this shot's overall composition.

John