Typical one week Tuscan-Umbrian Photo Tour itinerary (the short break holiday photography workshop will be the first 3 and a half days). The following is only a guide to a week’s daily photo tours. There are more things to do and see in Tuscia than we can possibly do in a week. We may insert special one day events such as The Barabbata Festival on Lake Bolsena or Corpus Domini in Orvieto. Furthermore we may move excursions around owing to the vagaries of the weather and individual tastes (we do listen to your requests). There are also festivals and sagra (village festivals highlighting local specialities, usually culinary, that are too numerous to mention here. Whatever else, you will see and learn a lot: Camera Etrusca is a photography workshop holiday and a Tuscany photo tour like no other.

Arrival Pick Up

– Friday is your arrival day
– You’ll be collected from Orvieto train station in the morning and transferred to your accommodation as your course starts after lunch on Friday afternoon
– Please note that Orvieto station is just 60-90 minutes from Rome Termini station
– Alternatively you can arrive on Thursday evening and add an extra night or nights to your trip with prices from €70 B&B for a single person, to book any number of extra nights at the beginning or end of your trip, please email us.

Day 1 Friday   Orvieto and environs in Umbria

– Your course starts early after lunch with a wander around the beautiful city of Orvieto, the home of your photography tutors and famous the world over. Orvieto like most of the towns in Umbria is an Etruscan city overlaid with Roman, Mediaeval and Renaissance buildings. The mediaeval quarter is so picturesque and unspoilt film crews often shoot here. The city was painted by William Turner who was struck by its site on an outcrop of rock above the Tiber valley and the cathedral is one of the wonders of Italy.
– This evening is free.

Day 2 Saturday  Lake Bolsena in Latium

– Your photo workshop starts after breakfast at 8.30. You’ll take a trip in the 4×4 to the dramatic Lake Bolsena only 20 minutes away, to capture the stunning scenery around its shores. You’ll focus on shooting the working fishing villages with their boats, nets and gnarled fishermen ideal for experimenting with depth of field, vivid colour composition, movement and portraiture. There are Etruscan tombs overlooking the lake where we practice dynamic range photography (HDR), balancing the gloom within, to the bright Mediterranean light outside.
– Dinner is taken at a lakeside restaurant tonight

Day 3 Sunday  Tyrrhenian coastline and Vulci

– Vulci , was an ancient Etruscan city of 50,000 inhabitants, now completely in ruins, it is a wonderful place for photographers. There is a mediaeval castle next to the so called ‘Devil’s Bridge’ of Etruscan origin spanning a deep ravine with a torrent below. High cliffs encrusted with stalactites , raging waters running over black basalt rocks, a high waterfall plunging into a lake surrounded by steep escarpments are just some of the attractions.- You’ll have the morning in Orvieto to review the results of your photography from yesterday and will work with your tutor as he gives you an overview of how to use Photoshop.
–The Coast– just 7 km from Vulci. Using a tripod to catch the motion of the waves and take an abstract approach as you photograph bleached white skeleton trees washed up the shore.
– Your evening is free

Day 4 Monday   The Hill Towns of Tuscany

Pitigliano, Sorano and Sovana
– After a short drive, you’ll spend a relaxing morning on the shores of Lake Bolsena.
– After a picnic lunch on the shore you’ll get back in the 4×4 to drive to three hill top towns in Tuscany, these towns are among the most picturesque in all of Italy and all three have been continuously inhabited since Etruscan times, 3000 years of history, a Jewish ghetto until the 1930s. The view of the town from the abandoned Jewish cemetery is very moving.
– You’ll also have the chance to document Italian life and the people.
– This evening is free

– An early start again today with a drive to the Mysterious Etruria. The Etruscan civilization was here while Rome was still a swampy village, most of what the Etruscans have left is cut deep into the volcanic rock, the tufa.  Poggio Conte (above) is a natural dell we call the Sacred Glade, with a quietly trickling waterfall. For more see the blog post

You will explore the Etruscan sacred ways, cut deep into the rock for unknown purposes about 2500 years ago. This is ideal terrain for photo-stitching, multiple shots joined together to make a panoramic view in a confined space.

The Etruscans loved water and you will spend the rest of the day photographing the waterfalls and streams that are to be found all over this area.
– This evening is free.

Day 6 Wednesday   Classic Tuscan Landscape

– After a short drive, you’ll shoot vine covered hills, hot springs, lonely umbrella pines, sentinel cypress and characteristic farms and villas – the classic Tuscan landscape south of Siena called the Val d’Orcia. The afternoon is free for shopping in Orvieto or relaxing in hot springs.
– Dinner tonight will be taken with the group in Tuscany

Day 7 Thursday   Orvieto and environs

– Today is the last day of your photography course and you’ll check-out of your accommodation after an early breakfast.
– Leaving the hotel early, you’ll photograph Orvieto from the hill opposite. As the sun comes up the mist often comes up from the Tiber valley. Then it’s back in the 4×4 to drive to nearby Civita di Bagnoregio  (lauded by Rick Steves’ famous guide) an almost deserted town, a sort of mediaeval ghost town.

– After lunch, your photography holiday finishes and you’ll be safe in the knowledge that you will be taking home new found photography skills and pictures to be proud of. You will also have 30x40cm (16×12″) pigment print made from one of your photos rolled in a tube to take with you.