A Roman Holiday on Lake Como
Photograph by Barry Gordon
We were spending the day exploring Lake Como by private boat, stopping in little towns along the way to wander and discover whatever might be around the next corner. In Varenna, we ventured away from the waterfront and into the quieter, winding passages of the village. We weren't looking for anything in particular. We were simply enjoying the pleasure of getting lost.
That's when I noticed the beginnings of a photograph.
A restaurant worker, perhaps a chef, was taking a cigarette break in the shadows of a narrow passageway. He was moving about, occasionally glancing toward a nearby stone staircase. The afternoon sunlight illuminated the smoke drifting around him. The street was nearly deserted, and everything about the setting seemed wonderfully timeless.
Meanwhile, my wife, Kristina, was making her way along the staircase, wearing a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses that could have come straight from an Audrey Hepburn film.
I could see the ingredients coming together: the old Italian architecture, the contrast of sunlight and shadow, the cigarette smoke suspended in the air, and Kristina approaching in the background. I knew there was a photograph waiting to happen. I just needed to bring the elements together.
I caught Kristina's attention and waited for that fleeting instant when the man's glance, the drifting smoke, and her movement on the stairs would align. Whether he was actually looking at her, I couldn't say. But through the lens, an entire little story seemed to unfold between two people who may never have noticed one another.
The resulting photograph has always reminded me of Roman Holiday. Something about Kristina's sunglasses, the Italian setting, and that seemingly unspoken exchange evokes the romance and elegance of another era. What I love most is that nothing extraordinary was happening. It was an ordinary afternoon in a beautiful Italian village, and yet, for a fraction of a second, it felt like a scene from a classic film.
Whenever I look at this photograph, I'm transported back to that wonderful day on Lake Como. And I'm reminded that sometimes the most memorable moments in travel aren't the places you set out to see, but the unexpected scenes you have the good fortune to recognize along the way.
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