PIENZA: STREET SCENES

Pienza, Italy is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  It was rebuilt in the 15th century by Enea Silvio Piccolomini, a Renaissance humanist who later became Pope Pius II.  As Pope, Pius II designed and built the town to be a model Renaissance community.  The town, perched on a hill above the Val d'Orcia, is very compact, only 9 blocks by 3 blocks, with typically narrow streets.  It is primarily a tourist designation but a pleasant, if crowded one.  During our tour we ran into a gentleman who admitted to be late into his 87th year and who seemed to be interested in flirting with Geri, all in good fun.

Of course, there are merchants intent on selling to the tourist crowd.

These blocks of cheese were actually quite large, perhaps 8-10 inches across.  That's a lot of cheese.  And I am persuaded that all of the shoes in the following photo were new--just made to look used.

The story of Pinocchio originated in a nearby town, and Pinocchio dolls, puppets, and marionettes were plentiful wherever we went in Tuscany and Umbria.

It seemed that all of the elementary schools required uniforms.  And I caught this group of students on a field trip.  I loved the blue rimmed glasses.

A few other random shots of the town.

This last was a simple shot, but there was something about the texture, both of the steps and the wall behind that I liked.  Perhaps it was the subtlety of the colors that caught my attention.  For the record, I shot this at f/4 with the focus on the iron railing which served to soften slightly the texture of the steps and wall.

Finally, I liked this shot of a side "street" (one of way too many such shots that I took over the course of the tour).  Maybe it was the green shutters that set this scene off and provided a point of interest, even though the stark green was not in keeping with the remainder of the town's  5-600 year old buildings.

John