Padma and I were loving Italy too much so we drove a short distance from Florence and spent an afternoon exploring Cinque Terre, a string of five seaside villages on the Italian Riviera.

We had dinner in Manarola and hurried to catch the sun setting from the Vista Panoramica di Manarola. We weren’t alone. The pathway was lined with people catching the last light of the day as it illuminated the village.

Interestingly, the pathway was also lined with a gaggle of photographers all vying to capture the iconic image of Cinque Terre, the view of Manarola from the north. These were serious photographers with tripods and big filters on their lenses. A group climbed to the rocks to catch the best angle. It’s a shot that has been done by countless photographers and probably pretty hard to improve upon but these photographers must have thought that night would be special.

The sunset was a bit of a dud and the eastern sky behind the village didn’t fill with colour as hoped. But the gaggle remained. Padma and I walked past them and climbed to the highest point of the viewpoint. I didn’t have the fancy equipment that the gaggle had but waited for that very narrow window of time when there is still bit of ambient light but the street lights come on.

Padma and I left the pathway but the gaggle remained even though it was fairly dark, but not dark enough that you still couldn’t see the laundry hanging outside the homes.