As a family we normally go to Italy for our summer break, our favourite and normal destination is the beautiful Lake Garda. This year for a change we decided to take in Tuscany and found an amazing 14th Century Tower in the quiet village of Montecatini Val di Cecina. The owner of the tower Luca was very helpful and friendly, I would recommend anyone to stay there it was a real treat. Apart from the incredible scenery in Italy the other reason we love to visit is the fact that the people there are so incredibly friendly and welcoming, they’re pretty laid back too. We have decided that we will live there one day when the kids have grown up and are no longer dependant upon us (just don’t tell them).
Whilst we were in Tuscany we took in Volterra, Siena, Florence and Pisa. I have posted some photographs before of the places that we have visited but I wanted to combine the whole trip in to one post to also include some photographs that were not in the original posts, for example the landscapes. Sadly for us the trip to Pisa was during a very wet day and whilst we did go up the tower and around the cathedral it didn’t make for good photographs. However, we have already decided to return to Tuscany next year for our break so will go back hopefully when the weather is more conducive to photography.
Normally I take my Canon DSLRs on holiday and a selection of lenses, but of late I have been working with the FujiFilm X system cameras and decided to take only my X-E2 and three lenses, the 10-24mm F4, 35mm F1.4 and the 56mm F1.2. I very much enjoy using this system, it really feels to me like a camera with soul and is so simple to use. For the kind of photography displayed here the camera is more than capable of creating amazing pictures and will be using the system more and more. Also I find that when taking street portraits or candid photographs the size and appearance of the X-E2 is less obtrusive than a big DSLR and makes me far less conspicuous.
So here is a set of my favourite photographs from our trip, they include some pictures of the incredible scenery that we saw nearby and indeed from the tower itself. Please fell free to view and share the link and if so inclined leave a comment at the bottom of the page.
