Monday July 25, 2016

POLSINE ITALY – This has been a long and rewarding day: on Porquerolles we were driven to the ferry landing, took the ferry to the mainland, took a taxi to the Toulon airport where we rented a car for the rest of our trip. Then the five hour drive to this tiny village in northern Emilia-Romagna were we are staying at a small hotel in a converted 15th Century customs house on the banks of the Po River. Amelia-Romana is one of the culinary capitals of the world, famous for its pasta, parmesan cheese (Parma is a half-hour’s drive from here) and amazing prosciutto and culatello.

The landscape here is dominated by the tallest electrical transmission tower that I’ve ever seen. Because of their great height these towers are spaced very far apart. One can speculate why they were built this way. Perhaps to put the electromagnetic radiations a large distance away from the brown cows, a heritage breed of cow much prized in this area for parmesan and butter production. It’s part of the genius of the Italian landscape that all of this, the village, the customs house, a tiny church and the tower all seem to coexist in visual harmony.

Day 2475 of one photograph every day for the rest of my life.

On this day two years ago (day 1745): Shepherds Bush.