I’ve just got home and am recovering from a 26-hour day of travel, and the nine hours of jet lag between the Bay area and Italy. That said, it was a great trip, and I am anticipating much fun as I begin to process my images from Italy. This one is another view from high up a San Gimignano tower as a storm gathered.

View from a San Gimignano Tower © Harold Davis

Il Campo is the central square in Siena, Italy—famous for its horse races, as a hang-out spot, and as a demonstration of the civic power of the historic republic of Siena. I visited Il Campo many years ago when I was a college kid to hang out, and not much has changed in all the intervening years. The surrounding restaurants and shops are louder and glitzier, and the crowds larger and more prosperous, but of course the architecture doesn’t change.

Il Campo, Siena © Harold Davis

Speaking of architecture, I climbed the campanile tower above Il Campo to make this photo, all 330 stairs, no tripod or camera bag allowed. My fisheye lens was in my pocket, and when I reached the top and caught my breath I switched it on the camera, and held it out as over the brink as I could to make the image.

This large clerestory window in the Duomo in Trento, Italy struck me as quite like a mandala with bright, overcast light shining through. I underexposed the image to emphasize the effect. The only possibly discordant element is the small eagle, perhaps Hapsburg, in the center of the piece.

Clerestory Window © Harold Davis

Today was a long day! I left Milan in the morning, walked across the street to the train station, and took the express to Florence. In Florence I took a taxi to the rental car agency, Europcar, and found myself behind the wheel in Italy. It’s always a blast to figure out the new systems of each car, like, why is the bluetooth-phone interface talking to me in Spanish? Doesn’t it know this is Italy, and I am American.

San Gimignano in the Rain © Harold Davis

After I arrived at the Cesani Agriturismo, an organic farm with wine and olive oil, and a few bedrooms, the rain began coming down. Mindful of Ansel Adams’s famous dictum, that if you aren’t out in the rain you can’t capture the clearing storm, I got in the car and headed a few miles down the road to San Gimignano, famous for its towers.

Climbing the highest tower of all the San Gimignano towers, I heard thunder peeling, and watched the storm front rush towards me. I wasn’t surprised when the guard told me to come down and once, and they closed the tower. Rain poured down in sheets. I consoled myself with a Tuscan meal of bean soup with toast, wild boar chops, and a delicious desert.

More adventures getting back to my room, with flooded roads, fog in the headlamps, and generally treacherous conditions. But obviously I made it to write this story.