A charming wedding at Palazzo Monaldeschi

The anachronistic spectacle of a high tech Italian wedding photojournalist in the Etruscan wasteland and necropolis in Lazio, never looks promising and sometimes is an omen of something going to happen…
But be assured that that never happens to me, well actually last time I walked these lands of the dead I felt a void at the centre of my being but I am sure it was something I ate.
My mission this time was to immortalise the most striking wedding never made in the north of Rome (if you think that I say this for every wedding I’ve been hired, you better take it back!): the Nicole and Morgan one!
Morgan and Nicole story is peculiar and romantic, they met at university in Viterbo, right in this very part of the region, he was from abroad for a year interchange program, at the end of the year he had to move back to his country and they started a long distance relationship that it turned to an long distance wedding planning.

I think that they chose for the best, infact the wedding itself was celebrated at Palazzo Monaldeschi, at Lubriano, from where you can enjoy a stunning view: woods, Mediterranean scrubs and the local canyon-like valley called “Valle dei Calanchi”, an eerie and out of place kind of small Mexican desert without the savoury fried crickets.
The best part of all is that this is a breath-taking natural set to take pictures, so every time I walk these Etruscan lands I am very happy and I feel so artistic.
Just in front of Lubriano, there is the dead city of Civita di Bagnoregio, and ancient and charming town that has been abandoned because it’s difficult to reach by car and not least because of the slow erosion of the rock where it is build, nowadays only six nostalgic and romantic people live there, that’s why they call it “Dying city”… an amazing dying photo subject.
For the celebrations the wonderful state building turned in an abridged version of United Nations Palace because it hosted guests from everywhere in the world, USA, French, Chile, Mexico, New Zealand and Italy of course, a cheerful and happy bunch that was a pleasure to photograph.

A wedding is indeed a solemn event, yes, it is and I am sure of it, but this one was so funny, serene, colourful, all day laughing and it was so gratifying for me as well, the tapestries, the frescos, the furniture, the trompe l’oeil, the carpet of petals in front of the church everything was like in a set, a real one.
But it was actually a special chemistry something that without Nicole and Morgan mixed with this dramatic palace and nature all around it couldn’t happen.
Now, sunset on my back, I can happily walk these Etruscan dusty roads that take me away to the place I call home.