One of the highlights of my 2011 visit to Italy was a hot air balloon ride over the countryside in the Piemonte region of Italy where we spent three days in a 12th century castle, Castello di Sinio. The balloon ride began late in the afternoon and ended with an uncontrolled — well, I have to say more of a crash — landing in a harvested cornfield a couple of hours later. We were told to crouch down as the basket hit the ground so I was unable to get any photographs of the actual landing. But, a two century old French custom to toast the end of a hot air balloon ride with champagne found its way to Italy with Prosecco served instead of champagne, a welcome and perfect ending to a wonderful adventure.
This is a video slideshow I prepared for my camera club’s July slide show night even though I took the photographs 6 years ago. I bought my Nikon D90 and 18-200mm lens the year before in anticipation of this trip to Italy. I’d love to go back and try this again with my improved knowledge of photography.