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Tuscany in spring
Tuscany

Tuscany: landscape and travel photography May, 01-08th, 2020

A 8-days photo tour in Tuscany, Italy, guided by Patrick Dieudonne, in partnership with Altaï, an experienced French agency, which will take care of hotels bookings and logistics. This photo tour, my "ideal" photo tour of Tuscany, is the result of several trips there, as a freelance photographer and guide for other agencies. We'll visit Florence and Siena, two magnificent cities with many differences (and strong rivalry in the past), and of course rural and hilly landscapes very typical of Tuscany.

Note: this trip is open to all nationalities. I speak french and english and will be happy to welcome not just french-speaking photographers but english-speaking ones too in the same group.

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DATES AVAILABILITY COST
2020, May, 01-08th (friday-friday)
green CANCELLED (Coronavirus) 1945 € * / 2050 €

* with less 5% for early booking (3 months in advance)
We can assist in your flights bookings, do not hesitate to ask !

Pre-booking and information:

 If you have further questions about this trip I will be happy to answer them. You may use the contact form below, send an email to info (at) patrickdieudonne.com, or call me.

 
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Tuscany 2020 -  Photo tour description

We all have in our mind an ideal vision of Tuscany. The painters of the Renaissance and more recently photography have contributed to build it. In Tuscany, there are timeless landscapes that one can find, identical to themselves, in the paintings of the Sienese or Florentine masters.

Much of the magic of Tuscany, for the landscape photographer, lies in the fact that in these places, town and country are not opposed but complementary. No scenery here is left untouched by human hands. The soil, with its distinctive color, is visible everywhere, worked incessantly, plowed, sown.
Nothing wild, but instead deeply and patiently humanized landscapes. Humanized, and not disfigured or enslaved.
Here, over the centuries, generations of industrious men have refined these hospitable landscapes, polishing here, planing there, so little, planting cypress trees, not too many, delivering these subtle works of open-air art which are at their peak in the Val d'Orcia near Pienza, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Our photographic journey in Tuscany will take into account this temporal dimension. We will focus on the best scenery (Chianti, Crete Senesi, Val d'Orcia) and most beautiful cities of Tuscany (Florence, Siena, San Gimignano, Colle di Val d'Elsa, Pienza, etc.), an architectural heritage without equal. Whenever possible, we will try to understand and illustrate the deep bond between land and cities. Indeed, Siena especially, but also Montepulciano, Volterra, San Gimignano, Castiglione d'Orcia, and many other cities built on hills, can be understood only in relation to these landscapes, that they dominate and unify around them.

 

Details

General Information

Photo workshop, guided in french & english by Patrick Dieudonne, professional photographer, Altaï-Huwans is responsible for hotels bookings, etc.

PRICE: 1 945 €(early booking) / 2050 € - without flight (we can help in the booking of your flight)

Single supplement 200 EUR approx.

Booking deposit: 300 EUR - final payment 30 days before the trip.

Program:

(can be adapted according to weather or local circumstances)

Day 1 (Saturday): Arrival at Pisa, then transfer to Florence (70 km), capital of Tuscany, pearl of the Renaissance. Installation at our hotel in Florence. Dinner and photo at night: Ponte Vecchio, Piazza della Signoria, Palazzo Vecchio.

Ponte Vecchio, Florence
Ponte Vecchio at night, Florence

Day 2 (Sunday): Photography in Florence: general view of the river Arno and town from piazzale Michelangelo and other sights such as the Duomo Santa Maria del Fiore, the Boboli Gardens, and many others. In the afternoon, we'll visit the Chianti, between Florence and Siena, which offers beautiful views over wooded hills, pretty little fortified villages and vineyards. Arrival at Colle di Val d'Elsa, a medieval town where we'll spend the night..

Chianti, villa
Fortified villa, Chianti

Day 3 (Monday): Visit to San Gimignano, dubbed the "Manhattan of the Middle Ages" because of its medieval towers, superbly preserved (14) that dominate the city and the surrounding vineyards like skyscrapers. Each noble family wanted to show his supremacy by building the tallest tower. We will take pictures from the neighboring countryside and in the city itself. Afternoon will be devoted to Volterra, once a rich pre-Roman (Etruscan) city, located in a stunning setting of collapsed clay hills that surround it and threaten it at the same time (balzes). Back to Colle di Val d'Elsa for the night.

Volterra
Near Volterra

Day 4 (Tuesday): We head south towards Siena and beyond. South of Siena extends the Crete Senesi (the word "crete" means bare clay hills). The prospects are endless, undulating hills everywhere, topped here and there by villas and farmhouses lined with cypress trees. A beautiful monastery, the Benedictine Abbey of Monte Olivetto Maggiore, stands in an impressive setting. It contains a treasure of Renaissance frescoes by Luca Signorelli and Il Sodoma (C15-16), illustrating scenes from the Life of St. Benedict, one of finest examples of Italian art.
Back to Siena in the evening, to explore this beautiful rival of Florence. This city is virtually exactly what it was at the time of its greatest splendor. Piazza del Campo, one of the most beautiful in the world, the Duomo (cathedral), with its splendid exteriors and interiors, and the fantastic medieval streets provide a travel in time, right back to the Middle ages and Renaissance. Night in Siena.

Siena, Duomo
  Duomo of Siena

Day 5 (Wednesday): We cross again the Crete Senesi landscapes to discover the real heart of Tuscany, the Val d'Orcia, a World Heritage Site. Several remarkable landscapes have become true icons for the landscape photographers: a lone cypress grove not far from San Quirico d'Orcia, the famous villa at the Belvedere, San Vitaleta chapel near Pienza, and many other famous sights. We will await the best light on these places, but we'll also discover many other riches in the vicinity.
We'll use a fairly dense network of dirt tracks that offer good views in all diections, early in the day and the evening, ans in the middle of the day, we'll visit the cities, amongst them Pienza, the "ideal" city of the Renaissance, created from nothing by Pope Pius II in the 16C, Rocca d'Orcia and its imposing fortress, Bagno Vignoni and its thermal pools, known since antiquity , the beautiful abbey of San Antimo, the hill towns of Montalcino and Montepulciano, surrounded by some of Italy's best wineyards (Brunello and Vino Nobile), for example ..

Chapel, Val d'Orcia
Chapel in Val d'Orcia

Day 6 (Thursday): second day of photography in the Val d'Orcia, visits to several places noted above. The emphasis is on landscape photography at the beginning and end of the day, which best reveal the contours and prospects of these exceptional Tuscan landscapes, and architecture and street photography at other times, or at night. We will also try to find the time to provide some guidance and advice about the pictures realized so far (composition and post-processing).

Val d'Orcia
Val d'Orcia

Day 7 (Friday): Val d'Orcia again at first light, another chance to capture the early morning magic of such rolling landscapes, when mist stand still in the bottoms of the valleys, gradually burned by the rising sun. The rest of the day will allow us to try a second chance at some of the best places already encountered the previous day, on the returning path to the north and Florence. Crete Senesi and Chianti, the Florence finally to rediscover. You will probably understand better then what really differentiates Florence and Siena. Both cities are superb, it's up to you to decide which is your favorite now... Night in Florence.

Champ et arbres, Toscane
Near San Quirico in Spring


Day 8 (Saturday): Depending of our flights times, we will try to pay a short visit to the magnificent leaning tower of Pisa on the way to the airport (Pisa). Return flight to France.

 

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What is included:

• Land transport
• Full board
• Accommodation in *** or **** hotels
• Pro Photographer
• Technical advice

What is not included:

• Travel, cancellation and luggage insurances
• Photo Equipement
• Alcoholic beverages and personal purchases.

Photo Equipment

• SLR digital or film
• Stable tripod, ballhead, etc.
• Lenses for landscape photography and architecture, wide-angle (below 24 mm), medium zoom 24 or 28-70 mm, medium telephoto zoom lens (70-200). A longer focal length can sometimes be useful for details in vast landscapes (300/400 mm). For more tips download our technical brochure below.


Monte Olivetto
Monte Olivetto Maggiore, Christ by Il Sodoma

Fitness

Easy walks, most sites will be reached by car.

Weather / clothing

In the beginning of May the weather is generally sunny. It can be already a little hot in the middle of the day. So bring light clothes mainly, but also additional layers as we photograph often at early morning and late evening. In October the weather is still very mild and we can have very good weather, but it can also be a bit cloudy, rain is sometimes possible (but forms nice mists the following morning in the valleys).


Accommodation and food:

Accommodation is of very good standard (three or four stars hotels), single or double rooms with private bathrooms. Breakfast is included. Lunch will be in restaurants and pizzerias, occasionally a picnic, depending of the place we explore. Dinner will be at the hotels or restaurants. Italian food is excellent.


Vehicles:

Depending on group size, we use a station wagon or a van seating 9 persons.


Bookings

Pre-booking is made on this site (please use the form above), then we'll arrange the booking and final payment with our partner Altaï. We can assist in flight bookings.

BOOKING FORMS

Booking form Tuscany 2020 (pdf)

Booking form Tuscany 2020 (Word)



Pienza
Pienza, ville idéale


Any other questions?

Please contact us using the form above or call if you need further information.

Contact

Patrick Dieudonné Photo
9 rue de Sampigny
55300 Han sur Meuse
FRANCE
Phone: + 33 (0)3 29 92 08 89
Mobile: +33 (0)6 79 63 27 25

We speak French and English.

Florence
Florence, bell tower

 

Documents, texts and photos © Patrick Dieudonne 2019.

 

 

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