Walking in The Rain in Orvieto, Italy

Nearly two decades ago, I rented a car with a few friends and took a road trip visiting small towns in Tuscany and Umbria. As we drove on a two-lane hilly road as the day was growing into the evening, we saw miles ahead a building being lit up by the sun. We all marveled out loud, then my friend Laura exclaimed “It’s the duomo in Orvieto!” And it was. The duomo in Orvieto sits large in the center of this hillside town and has enormous gold mosaics on its façade.

We opted not to stop in Orvieto that evening. But that memory was still with me when I returned to central Italy last year. I met up with photographer Luigi Ventimiglia (stay tuned for an interview with him) in Rome, then in the afternoon I planned to take the train to Orvieto to see the sunset. Luigi pointed out that it was likely to rain, but I couldn’t pass up my small window of opportunity to get see the Orvieto duomo up close.

Well, Luigi was right. It was raining the whole afternoon I was in Orvieto. Never the less, the duomo was beautiful. And I was able to position myself in a Renaissance-style doorway to catch this image. It is not the image that I have had in my mind for the past 20 years, but it’s an interesting shot of modern and historical in a beautiful hillside Italian town.

Originally published at https://dogdays.photography on August 14, 2021.