Oh, Vernazza! That jewel of the Cinque Terre, beloved by millions and immortalized on countless Instagram feeds. How differently I'd imagined my triumphant moment in this coastal paradise. Instead of dazzling sunshine and picture-perfect blue skies, I was greeted by a deluge and howling winds.
Dry and safe I found shelter in one of those conveniently placed archways that line the path to the photo spot. I watched nature's unfiltered performance—the sky brooding in magnificent shades of slate and charcoal, the sea thrashing against the shoreline like a temperamental artist dissatisfied with its creation, and the harbor's painted buildings standing in stubborn, technicolor rebellion against the monochrome heavens.
It was the perfect moment to experience Vernazza from its rougher, more honest side—and then, naturally, the sky broke open. As if the weather had suddenly remembered that it exists primarily for tourists, it allowed a few rays of sunlight to penetrate, bathing everything in golden light. And as if that weren't enough, Mother Nature topped it off with a rainbow—an almost offensively perfect subject that could have come straight from an overwrought travel brochure.
So I pressed the shutter. And there it was, the image everyone wants to see: colorful, idyllic, lovingly beautiful. A picture that tells nothing of the spray that had lashed against the rocks before, nothing of the wind that whistled through the alleys, nothing of the brief but magnificent drama of this moment.
Photographed with the Sony RX1 RII