The Gran Sasso

Travel broadens the mind they say and it certainly did when I went to the Abruzzo region of Italy nearly two years ago now with three other photographers. Not only was it beautiful and almost empty of tourists but the variety of scenery from the Trabbochi coast into the national parks which ran up into the Appenines was stunning and historic. The days drive included several stops in wonderful hilltop towns, some having suffered from earthquakes in the recent past. The roads looped the loop and got higher and higher with accordingly bigger drops to the valleys below.

This shot was taken in the Gran Sasso D'Italia national park and the rock running up on the left leads to the ruins of a castle once the highest fortified building in Europe. In the distance is the Great Horn, the second highest mountain in Italy and standing where we were we only just failed to top Ben Nevis. 

On the day we arrived autumn storms swept through the valleys and we could see the rain pouring down and racing along as the sun followed and shone brilliantly where a downpour had been minutes earlier. Luckily the cloud stayed below us.

The chapel was a much later addition than the castle and we set up our tripods and cameras and watched nervously as the clouds came and went and the sun edged around the rock. We knew that it should hit the doorway of the chapel soon but whether the timing would be right was another thing. Eventually it arrived at just the right moment and, thankfully, we clicked away until it diappeared again. It had been a great day, the clouds and light played along with our needs (just) and we rushed back to the car as the large raindrops started to fall. We shouldn't have worried. The wind gusted it away very quickly.