I am just back from Italy and have thousands of pictures documenting my travels.  The absolute hardest thing for me to do is to select the photos to show.  I've already uploaded thousands of photos to my Zenfolio site and while doing re-lived many pleasant memories.  What I am challenging myself in this blog entry is to select only one photo that epitomizes my experience in the three locations that I visited on my trip.

My first town was Genoa.  My hotel was close to the train station and a short walk to the waterfront.  I enjoyed walking each morning and each evening along the harbor broadwalk.  So, my selection process was inclusive of those photos that I took during those walks.  Regrettably, I have a number of photos that were taken when I explored the city and hiked up to the panoramic view, but for this selection process, I excluded all of those wonderful photos.

The photo I selected was taken in the early evening while I walked along the floating pier.  There were many people on the pier enjoying the warm sun and waiting for sunset.  The water sparkled with a wonderful, warm reflection of the surrounding town and the boats in the harbor. To me, this moment encompasses my experience with Genoa.  The water, being in the harbor, the golden tones of the early evening sun, and the golden tones of the building near the harbor.

The second and longest stop on my trip was Sestri Levante, a 60 minute train ride south of Genoa.  A pleasant fishing village and tourist area at the very start of the season.  I was there for a week so you can imagine how many photos that I took during my time there.  One of the very pleasant areas of this city are the two bays.  There are a number of hikes that you can experience that provide great views of the bays.  This is the one that to me epitomized my experience there.

A glorious day and a glorious walk to get this enchanting view in Sestri Levante.

My last city on my trip was Rome.  I was there for five days and also had a number of photos from various parts of this ancient and photogenic city.  The one photo that I choose to represent my time there was taken on my last morning there, right before I left for the airport.  I had the opportunity of visiting St Peter's Basilica in the early morning without any crowds.  This photo captures Bernin's huge altar canopy.  The photo doesn't capture the massiveness of the church, which is impressively huge.  At the time I was there, I believe there were about 20 masses being said in the side altars and you just don't notice it because the scale of the church is so massive.

So, those are my three selections.  Each one represents a different aspect of my trip.  Two were outdoors and featured water and harbors.  One celebrates grand artwork on a grand scale within one of the most massive churches that I will ever experience.