My first trip to Italy was in the middle of my last year as a graduate student in music. Although I carried a camera and photographed, my purposes were musical and historical research rather than image-making. Twenty-eight years were to pass before I again set foot on Italian soil, and this time roles were reversed. I took a break from photographing coastl forests and the Great Plains, going to Italy because my wife was teaching in Florence. I could stay in her apartment, the theory being that I'd make day trips out to all the places I wanted to see in Chianti. In practice, I stayed most of my time in Florence and her suburbs, with a remarkable weekend fling up to Cinque Terre.

The first group of images, under the title "Porte d'Italia" I posted after that trip. My third trip to Italy was in May 2007, and I spent part of the time with a group of other photographers and the remainder travelling with my wife, negotiating the vagaries of Italian public transportation on our own.

I invite you to open either door; treasures lie behind both.

2005: Porte d'Italia	2007: Visions of Tuscany