For years, my relationship with my homeland was a tug-of-war between love and frustration, a tension that eventually led me away for seven years.

But distance has a way of clearing the lens. I returned to Italy no longer blinded by the familiar, but captivated by the extraordinary.

These images are my rekindled love letter to Italy, exploring the enormous regional spirit of Italy, and capturing the people who breathe life into our historic landscapes every day.

Milano

“Milan is a true metropolis: strong and fearless but welcoming, too. Little by little, I came to realise that I could become someone here.”

- Giorgio Armani.

Roma

“Yes, I have finally arrived to this Capital of the World! I now see all the dreams of my youth coming to life... Only in Rome is it possible to understand Rome.”

- Goethe.

Venezia

“Venice never quite seems real, but rather an ornate film set suspended on the water.”

– Frida Giannini.

Verona

“There is no world without Verona walls, But purgatory, torture, hell itself.”

– William Shakespeare.

Napoli

“Napule è mille culure
Napule è mille paure
Napule è a voce de' criature
Che saglie chianu chianu
E tu sai ca' non si sulo”

– Pino Daniele.

Emilia-Romagna

“Towards evening I got out of this ancient, venerable, and learned city, and extricated myself from its crowds, who, protected from the sun and weather by the arched bowers which are to be seen in almost every street, walk about, gape about, or buy, and sell, and transact whatever business they may have.”

– Goethe.

A selection of shots taken in Bologna, Ravenna, Piacenza and Modena.

Sicilia

“To have seen Italy without having seen Sicily is not to have seen Italy at all, for Sicily is the clue to everything.”

- Goethe.

A selection of shots taken in Catania, Acireale and Taormina.

Firenze

“Through these old streets I wander dreamily; Around me Florence sweeps her busy tide of life.”

- William Leighton.

Genova

“It is a place that ‘grows upon you’ every day. There seems to be always something to find out in it. There are the most extraordinary alleys and by-ways to walk about in. You can lose your way twenty times a day, if you like; and turn up again, under the most unexpected and surprising difficulties. It abounds in the strangest contrasts; things that are picturesque, ugly, mean, magnificent, delightful, and offensive, break upon the view at every turn.”

- Charles Dickens.

Bari

“Bari, that freewheeling gem on Italy's Adriatic coast.”

- Jeffrey Deaver.

Le Cinque Terre

“To those who come from the sea, the Port of Venus appears on the waterfront and here, in the hills that cloak the olive trees, it is known that even Minerva forgot Athens – her homeland – for so much sweetness…”

- Petrarca.