Mad dogs and Englishmen

Work started in earnest today as we headed off to find photographic matches for my own article. With Google Earth I had narrowed down the locations to within a few hundred metres for many of the shots so now it was a simple matter of getting the actual location. Simple? Yeah, right.

The first series was taken in a place called Presanzano, and in the photos there is a rocky, steep and barren hillside where this particular recreation took place. Now it is rocky and steep still, but far from barren. Sadly it is covered in mix of tussock, small trees and a particularly vicious kind of bramble that somehow actually wraps itself around legs and arms. We got away from home later than hoped and it was midday when we arrived, so I scrambled around that damned hillside for about an hour in the full sun – about 37 deg C. I found the exact rock where the original was taken so that was satisfying. Less so was the fact it was covered in bushes so the view was obscured. I broke as many of these down as I could to get a shot worth publishing, and I’m not going through all that again. By the time I got back to the car I was absolutely done in. Madness. (Pazzo!) Other shots in the series were taken in various places around the hillside. I took one off a lane at the bottom of the hill and gave up on the others.

We had lunch of sorts on Mignano, where the next series was taken. The street depicted in the originals was completely rebuilt after the war so it was difficult to find matches. There were also technical difficulties as I had relied on my laptop which had a stuffed battery, and the car charger was less practical than I hoped. I called into the Comune who were enthusiastic, but not very useful in regards to sourcing photos. They had copies of old photos but didn’t know where they came from or even who to ask. Still, we got a few booklets, and a nice banner with the town’s coat of arms. After a wander around the town it was time to head back. Next day I would come armed with printouts…

Damned dog was at it again. Tomorrow J will get some ear-plugs.