Rewind: Sesto Fiorentino, Italy | New York City Photographer

I spent the first semester of my senior year at college on a study abroad program, in a small town just outside Florence, Italy called Sesto Fiorentino. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. I didn’t speak a word of Italian when I arrived, but by the time I left I was proficient enough to get around. (Barely, but still.)

What a fantastically beautiful country, and steeped in history – you can feel it walking down any street. I took about a thousand photos in the 5 months I was there, but until recently, I’d never really done any kind of post work on them. Since BCC is away in Mexico for a week with his family, I have some free time on my hands so I decided to run some of the images through Lightroom and see what I could bring out.

The camera I used while abroad was a secondhand Sony Cybershot DSC-F717, what I’d call an “intermediate” point-and-shoot. I had minor control over the settings, but everything was shot in JPG and it definitely had limited capabilities compared to my DSLR. Still, it was a workhorse and it survived all my bouncing around Europe, from Italy to Dublin to Amsterdam.

We lived in the 500-year-old Villa Corsi-Salviati. It was by far the most magnificent place I’ve ever stayed. Ever. I had difficulty paying attention to the tour guide our first day at the villa, distracted by all the scenes to photograph. My favorite spot was the villa library.

Here are some photos from my first week walking around Sesto and taking it all in.

Stay tuned for more rewind posts coming soon!