Travel photography challenges in Italy
One of the biggest challenge I have faced during my Italy travel is definitely travel photography. I can consider other travel challenges such as communication or cost saving being part of my travel experience in Italy. However, being an avid travel photography hobbyist, I couldn’t leave alone those challenges in capturing the magnificent scenes and architectures of Italy. I have to figure out what and how to capture them.
Italy is a beautiful country. Can’t argue on that. There are too many stunning picturesque scenes to capture at every corner in every city. But I realised there are something and some places where visitors are not allowed or not advisable to take photos in Italy. To name a few,
1) The famous Sistine Chapel is the only section inside Vatican Museum where visitors are not allowed to take photo though you can take along your camera (which I don’t understand why). If you want to capture the classical Michelangelo’s ceiling fresco of ‘The Creation of God‘, you can still do it silently and super fast before they stop you!
2) The original statue of the infamous David by Michelangelo is housed within the Academia Gallery in Florence. Unfortunately, besides of the long long queue to get in, visitors are also not allowed to take photo of it. How you can capture the David? Get out of the gallery and head over to Piazza Signoria where you can find a replica and shoot it in whatever angle you like!
3) After shooting it in the morning, the night view of Colleseum in Rome is also marvellous! In order to capture both scenes at the same time, try arrange your travel itinerary so that visiting Colleseum is your last stop of the day just before it closed at 7pm. Once you get out of the Colleseum, look for the best spot, set up your tripod and it’s just nice to capture it at dusk!
4) There are many artists and painters on the streets of Florence. Be careful when you try to snap them. Some of them might get really furious and chase you off! So, always ask for permission before you snap, and
5) Don’t take photos inside the airport terminal hall in Rome airport! I was ‘invited’ by the police to their office and asked to delete all photos taken in the airport! It could be only me. According to them, visitors are not allow to take photos of the airport interior!
Apart from these, bring as many memory SD, CF or XD cards as you can and shoot whatever you see along your travel to Italy, just to make sure you won’t regret of not taking photo of any street or statue! 🙂 – Travel Feeder, your ultimate travel photo guide
About The Author
Cecil Lee
The author is an avid traveler and photography hobbyist who loves to share with others his travel and photo-taking experience in many popular tourist destinations around Europe, Asia and Australasia. Read the exciting stories with many photos captured on his journeys.
I always love getting the ‘forbidden’ pictures like the ceiling of the Sistine chapel. However, I was thrown out of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam for taking ONE picture, without flash. At least when I get thrown out of other places for taking pictures, I can tell them I’ve been thrown out of better places – it doesn’t get much classier than the Rijksmuseum.
- February 18, 2012I’m glad you enjoyed Italy (my home).
- March 3, 2012Italy is a fairly easy country to shoot, there are a lot of beautiful spots that make great photographs. We are friendly people, and we like being shot (by camera, eh :)).
Spots where photography is forbidden are just a few, and this is annoying.
It isn’t just a matter of Italy: in Japan in almost every temple you can’t take photographs of the inside; in France you have the Tour Eiffel at night protected by copyright (how insane!).
Photographs in airports is becoming harder everywhere, due to security reasons. I hear horror stories of US airports too.
I hope you liked my country!