Washing day, Montalcino, Italy

Another favourite image from last year's trip to Italy and the third that I plan on entering for the TPS MOS. This was shot hand held, walking around the town of Montalcino. Washing hangs out of windows like this all over Tuscany. I'd taken a few shots of just washing lines and buildings, but it never seemed to come together. Lots of interesting sets, just waiting for the actors to come along. This time I got lucky. The woman was looking out of her balcony in the shadow and I quickly ran up the hillside to frame her against the much lighter wall behind, to throw her mostly into silhouette and stop her head merging with the tiles of the roof behind. In many ways this sums up how the hill top towns in Italy felt. Tourists swarm all over them every day, but people live there, watching the world go by, doing their washing and getting on with their lives.