Dark Places - Hidden Treasures
Peter Zagar
Photographer - Author - Workshop Instructor - World Traveler - Business Owner, Rome, Boston, Los Angeles.
It was still dark when I started my uphill walk through the steep and narrow streets of Montepulciano in Tuscany, Italy. Sunrise was still forty-five minutes away but I already had my camera strapped over my shoulder, perhaps, anticipating some unexpected shot. The people of this small, medieval, fortress town were beginning to stir and occasionally I would see ghostly shadows moving silently through distant alleyways. The smell of fresh baked pastries confirmed that some had already started their day several hours earlier. By chance, I paused in front of a large, wooden archway door to view my surroundings when suddenly, as out of thin air; a young woman wearing a hooded cape appeared before me. She looked up at me from under her hood and without a word, without hesitation, she opened the heavy door behind me and disappeared into the darkness beyond. That brief moment would reveal itself to be a rewarding chance encounter as I retraced my footsteps later in the day.
By early evening, I again found myself standing in front of that old, ancient door. A sign above the doorway read “Vini Nobilis.” The wood was thick, cracked and black with age. The latch and hinges were wrought iron and you could tell by their irregular size, they were forged and shaped by the hand of a medieval blacksmith. The door opened and the young woman I saw earlier that morning, once again, stood before me. With her head turned slightly sideways, she looked at me as if to reassure herself that I was the same person she had seen in the predawn darkness that morning. With a hand gesture, she invited me in. “You are a photographer” she asked? I explained I was a photographer on assignment for an American magazine doing a story on medieval towns in Tuscany. She pointed to a small opening, barely big enough for a small child to pass through, located on a side wall behind me. A half step after the opening was a narrow, steep, stairway sculptured from live stone. I sensed my eyebrows rising as I peered down the dark passageway. I looked in her direction and she said, “You might find some things to photograph and to write about down there. Try not to get lost or to hit your head.” Let there be no doubt that hidden treasures are often found in dark places.
PS. I bought 10 bottles of their 2012 red. More photos from my latest trip to Montepulciano can be seen at the following 2 link: