Nighttime Magic

I always assumed that the best way to create a show was to choose a theme, go through our collection of over 10,000 photos of Italy, and choose about 100 - 150 and voila, a broadcast has begun to be formed. Then the tweaking, creating a narrative, and interweave my experiences. That is exactly how Show # 87: Nighttime Magic was created. I knew we had hundreds of nighttime, evening, and morning photos of different places in Italy, so I chose my favorite couple of hundred, narrowed it down to about 150 and fashioned a program. Laura's input helped hone the finished product, as she edited some, and discarded others. The actual broadcast was flawless, and the show will become, as Ellen, my engineer predicted as I left the studio, a classic.

I built the show around some of my favorite towns in Italy such as Sorrento, Varenna, Stresam Varenna, Orvieto, Cortona, and la Spezia, all with evocatively stunning scenes. I also threw in my "big three" Venice, Florence, and Rome. Italy is amazing in the nighttime and evening, truly magical and that came through perfectly on this broadcast.  Places that are charming enough during the day take on a truly eerie flavor in the evening. One of the great experiences for me is to choose a hotel right in the center of a town, stroll to dinner down some blind alley way, have a delicious Italian meal in a small family run trattoria, and then try to find our way back to our hotel down narrow, winding alleyways that pass for streets, getting somewhat (but not totally) lost along the way. The aroma of smoke from fires throughout these towns adds to the mystic. Even when I am home and smell the fires in upstate NY I can easily imagine myself and Laura, strolling arm and arm, wending our way through the maze of medieval streets and buildings hundreds of years old. I can easily imagine myself back then. Just close your eyes and take a deep breath.

Then, of course, getting back to our hotel, a beacon of light in a dark desert and perhaps sitting in the lobby or garden for an hour or so before heading up to our room really enhances this amazing experience. The whole package is what I tried to convey to my audience; Alan's Italy's ideal stroll around town in the magic of an Italian night.

Two weeks from now I begin a three part series on Italy, Then and Now featuring 19th century photos of places in Italy together with modern versions. First focussing on Florence, then Tuscany in general, and then locales all around the country.