After a successful first day shooting in Italy we were ready for our second day filled with many more beautiful Italian buildings to shoot. This day was packed with stunning Villa's, five all together. All photos in this blog were taken on mine/ somebody else’s phone and are not from my camera.
The Villa's were located in rural areas of Italy some up in the mountains surrounded by mesmerising views and others on ground level enclosed with nature and spacious gardens.
I felt as though I had more energy to strive on the second day of shooting as shooting eight locations on the first full day was very exhausting. The views were so rewarding when finding these locations that were up in the mountains this one in particular overlooking Florence. I was so lucky to see Italy in a different way and through a more explorative approach, photographing forgotten buildings out of the UK really opened my eyes to the abandoned beauty there is around the world and that going outside of your comfort zone and travelling to new places is ok.
Location 1 - Villa Volpi - 7:30am
The first Villa we visited was located within a part of Italy surrounded by country roads and vast amounts of farmland. We had to get through a fair amount of greenery and trees to get to the building which added to the adventure of shooting the first location of the day. Being early it was still quite chilly in the mornings as there was a cold breeze and air which was strange because by the end of the day it would reach to at least 26 degrees.
The Villa taken over by nature appeared like an architectural garden within this abandoned location and made it appear far more beautiful as the relationship between nature and architecture soon became evident to me. The greens created a vibrant contrast from the decay and artistic murals within the building which was something I had not seen so far on the trip in any of the locations visited.
Location 2 - Villa Blue Web - 10:30
Getting to this location was quite a drive up into the higher grounds of Italy, surrounded by mountains and scenic views.
This Villa was one of my favourites of the day and by far had some of the most impressive murals I had seen on the trip. Finding the main room with the beautiful murals and art work was challenging as there were no stairs meaning we had to use a ladder we had found to climb up onto the second floor through a room that had collapsed previously. Team effort and being steady and careful was how we safely helped one another onto the second floor.
The room full of fascinating murals, including parrots and scenery of a town. The other rooms were very dark due to the lack of natural light however the main rooms were filled with light due to the collapsed roof that was struck by an earthquake which allowed us to shoot great images.
Location 3 - Villa Pink Beauty - 12:30
This Villa had many religious murals inside and a stunning window shot overlooking a river with views of nature at the top of the building. The murals were pink toned and had wonderful patterns and showed people of religion such as Jesus. The pastel colours were complimentary to the decay surrounding. The lighting in this Villa appeared very yellow, creating a glow in the room.
Location 4 - Villa Purple Piano - 14:30
This Villa I found to be in an unusual location, placed on the side of a busy road and not hidden away like many of the other locations we had shot. The Villa was spacious and had many rooms, half of it had been sealed meaning we were unable to get around the whole building but what we had found inside was truly exciting.
Some of my favourite shots from the trip were taken at this location where we had found an old piano in a room where we were able to capture a light beam and also in a separate room an eerie and very old pram that really added to the unsettling and disturbing atmosphere.
The garden of this Villa was luxurious and was full of fruit trees and nature with a small but beautiful chapel at the end of the garden, that we unfortunately did not have time to go inside to check it out however I am regretful of not making time to quickly have a look.
I found this Villa to have great patterns and colours within the wall paper which was very useful for my project I was shooting exploring the relationship between textiles, architecture and landscape. The final product of this project can be found in the 'Projects' tab at the top of my Website page named 'Architecture, Fashion, Landscape'. The project was started before my trip to Italy and progressed and developed during my trip in order to create my final outcome, a mock up editorial.
Outside of this Villa was a sign in Italian which I have translated in order to gain a better understanding of the past and history behind this location.
"On 8 July in the garden of Villa Rubeschi, occupied by a German unit, three peasants captured in Bucine in the anti-aircraft shelter, were forced to dig two holes to bury the bodies of two German soldiers killed in Podere Vignali the day before. Their death had already started the reprisal that would have cost the lives of so many innocents in the area around San Leolino. Late in the afternoon, in the field adjacent to the villa, they were ordered to dig another grave, were lined up against a Moor that surrounds these lands and killed by a burst of submachine gun, among them a boy, Silvan, 16 years old."
Location 5 - Villa Sofa - 18:00
Ending the day just before sunset at around 19:30 was a smart decision made as we were exhausted from the second full day of shooting but the last location was one I enjoyed because it was up in the mountains and had a huge balcony with amazing views where the golden hour was present.
The walk up the hill to this Villa was quite tiring but we had made the decision that this would be the last location of the day so that we could eat and sleep at a more reasonable time than the night before. We decided to name this Villa as 'Villa Sofa' because once entering into the building the main room had two elegant looking sofa's directly opposite one another in what looked like a foyer. We named the locations we visited after words that we thought best represented the locations we went to and made them memorable to us which helped when referring back to these locations in conversation.
I was really pleased with this day, it was refreshing waking up so early and shooting straight away, I was motivated by the concept of shooting more buildings and the curiosity of not knowing what they would entail, this always kept me excited and enthusiastic throughout the day.
