The World In My Eye - Italy

Venice is a muse, a grand lady, lifting her skirts high above the rising water. She is at once ancient and contemporary, graciously welcoming to encless visitors and carnivale revelers each year. Each turn of a corner, each bridge crossed is a revelation, each view an inspiration. The stores are filled with Murano glass, masks and Fortuny replicas, and the streets are filled with Venetians. Even in the winter, bundled-up natives sit in outdoor cafes and sip scalding macchiato and cappuccino, steam from their breath mingling with steam from their cups. Wandering the streets of Venice with a camera, one runs the risk of becoming lost. Could that ever be considered bad?

Portogruaro, on the Po River, is one of Venice's suburban sisters. That thousand-year old town is built around a tower that leans to rival that of Pisa. The Po flows through the center, at one point churning through twin mill whels straight out of the sketchbooks of Leonardo DaVinci. I was completely smitten at once by this village and its people.

Napoli, Capri, Portofino, Proceda, and of course Pompeii, stretch along the Amalfi Coast of Italy like an extravagant necklace. The houses, boats an hotels steal the hues of sunrise, sunset, clear skies, and summer warmth. The people are passionate and welcoming. There was no way to photograph this coastline in black and white, and so, color - the colors of the Amalfi Coast.