Who needs light?

• Manja Maksimovič

Today we go back six years to visit the abandoned village of Vignoni Alto in Val d’Orcia. I was there twice, both in 2015, and both times there was no light to speak of. Still, here are some photos because Sue asked for it.

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Vignoni Alto means Upper Vignoni. I was reminded of it when I saw Sue’s photo of the town below, Bagno Vignoni, one of her favourite places on earth. This is Val d’Orcia, doubtlessly one of the prettiest locations in Tuscany. You know, the cypress trees.

I had heard of Bagno Vignoni and its pool in the place of a square, and took mother, amore and bestia there to see it but when we got there I didn’t take a single photo of it for some reason. Instead we continued up the hill and ended up in a ghost village.

It’s a pretty, well maintained ghost village with the best view unless the light is not cooperative. It wasn’t.

And it happened twice since on my birthday a couple of months later my parents and I tried again. This time there was something else too: I’d left the dusk/dawn setting on my camera so everything acquired the ugly indigo hue that I can’t get rid of.

For some reason I never went back in all six years. (I know the reason: competition is stiff in Italy.)

When I was choosing photos to post today, it just so happened that there are ten from the first occasion and ten from the second visit. You will be able to tell them apart: the first half is brown and the second bluish. Damn dusk/dawn.

Some of these were posted on my first blog. If they seem familiar, you’ve been with me a long time. Congratulations and thank you.

  • Ghost weather.
  • Ghost window.
  • Ghostbusters.
  • Posing mom 1.
  • The sky is the limit.
  • Cypress hills.
  • Castiglione d’Orcia in front and Monte Amiata (1,738 m; 5,702 ft) the highest peak of southern Tuscany in the back. They ski there.
  • Amore looks six years younger. 😀
  • Bestia can see sheep.
  • Suffering Slovenian. Posing mom 2.
  • Visit no. 2. Posing mom 3.
  • A fine house. I wasn’t yet collecting doors but I knew what I liked.
  • More fine houses.
  • Father barely made it.
  • Not abandoned, just empty.
  • Meticulously maintained.
  • There you go. Indigo Val d’Orcia in May.
  • Parents were indigo too.
  • Bestia waited at home this time but I found another. (Photo: Father)
  • Goodbye, Val d’Orcia. I promise to catch you in good light when I can again.

36 thoughts on “Who needs light?”

      1. I went in search of ruined ones, but they “just empty of inhabitants, or so it seemed” Although I did find out about Craco Veccia, and visited nearly a decade ago….

        Liked by 1 person

  3. Your mom is so strong to hold up those rocks! 😂 These photos are so pretty. My gardens will never be that meticulous–they tend to be what I call wild disorder. And bestia watching the sheep–so cute.

    Liked by 1 person

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  4. These photos are soothing for me on a Friday afternoon. I don’t know which one I like best: Posing Mom II or Bestia watching sheep. Both make me smile! Happy Friday to you Manja.

    Liked by 1 person

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      1. We’re realising we can’t make any plans, not even with a week in advance as things are getting bad again. Sometimes I wonder if it will ever end 😦

        Liked by 1 person

  11. Belísimo! You should a photo book on Italy. The ghost door reminded me of a land tax invented in France, late 19th, early 20th. The annual tax on your house was calculated on the number of doors and windows. Imposto alle porte e d finestre. people started laying bricks in windows and doors the next day. They probably had the same tax in Italy.
    On the plaque where your mother posed, I see families Fratiglioni and Rossi lost many sons in the war.
    Hope all is well?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you, Equinoxio. Oh yes, I’m pretty sure that the same law is to blame for many ghosts windows and doors in Italy as well. That plaque hints at a story. These people died at the very end of the war, when they thought it had already ended. What happened? Worthy of research. Here all is well, no war, and Tuscany even remained orange while most of the rest of Italy turned red overnight. Poppies about to start coming.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Brothers of my grandfather died two weeks after the beginning of the war and up to October 1918… It was a massacre. I think of the mothers. Getting the successive telegrams…
        Poppies now? “Gentil coquelicot, mesdames…”
        Buon sera.

        Liked by 1 person

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