I went through the hundreds of photographs I took over the last three weeks looking for images for a photo essay and I decided to assemble a set of shot that displayed strong colors. I’ve always managed to shoot some real colorful subjects, but I wasn’t sure if I had enough this time. Well, provided I was willing to mix subjects – ads, flowers, tapestries, bushes and candies – there were enough. From the set, my favorite is the tapestry shot. It was in the museum at Montecassino and thanks to Photoshop I was able to make its colors vibrant. And thanks to Ferlinghetti, I got to put the most contrary text with this glorious pic.

The chestnut and thistle shots are from our walk to Portosalvo. The cellophane wrapped vegetable are from Campo di Fiori. And the last shot – the marzipan – is from Modica. Not only are the hyper-colored dolci in the shot, so are 4 shadows – me, stranger, Rick and Sarah.

Often the pace and museum restrictions required an auto setting and for that I relied on a good lens and the D90.

The text for this essay is Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s poem I Am Waiting. I bought A Coney Island of the Mind in 1968 at the Harvard Book Store. I signed the book Brother Mario.