Castel del Piano, Tuscany — August 16, 2024

A distant view of a hilltop town rising above a dense band of green treetops, its tightly packed stone buildings stretching along the ridge.

August 16, 2024. Castel del Piano, Tuscany. I keep coming back to a single shape today: the hilltop town on the ridge, two slender bell towers rising out of a band of stone buildings, dark woods tumbling down the slopes beneath it. From the overlook, the valley between us is just canopy — green on green on green. Then the weather does the thing Tuscany does in August. A heavy grey lid of cloud cracks open, and luminous rays fan down over the forested ridges, pooling warm gold along the horizon. Closer to home, our little above-ground pool sits in the foreground, a green cactus float grinning at the whole show. One quiet idea I want to remember: the town stays the same all day; the light is what writes the story. Tomorrow I want to walk into those woods below the ridge and see what the canopy looks like from underneath.

Crepuscular sun rays break through a heavy bank of grey clouds, fanning downward over a hazy ridgeline of forested hills.