Catherine Stevens, Italy (Travel (2019))

I travelled around Italy for 8 weeks in April/May 2017. The majority of the trip was spent in Sicily and Puglia, finishing in Rome before heading home. The images reflect what these regions of Italy mean to me: small town local communities, cultural identity, beautiful scenery and architecture, religious iconography - and tourism! Image 1 was taken in the historic centre of Agrigento in Sicily. Each of the elements strikes me as very Italian: the statue of Madonna embedded in the old patched wall, the paved street and the battered Fiat. Image 2 was taken in Pietraperzia, a small town in Sicily. A group of local men talk at the café in the town piazza. Image 3. Shot in the fishing town of Gallipoli in Puglia. Local life, very much connected to the sea. Image 4. The Piazza of the Puglian town of Nardo. I liked the incongruous meeting of gelato bike with memorial wreath. Images 5 and 6 were shot in Rome. The popular sites of the eternal city were teaming with tourists, too much for this Roman Centurion. The last image is of a decorative fitting of cherubs suspended from the domed ceiling of a church.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.