Pienza

The one place I would return to. Preferably with other photographers. The town was lovely and the surrounding countryside just beautiful. If I run away from home this may be where I’d run to.

Behind the Scenes

I’ve alluded to some behind the scenes issues that were having a big impact, beyond the usual travel, transport, fatigue challenges. We were forging ahead with the holiday because we didn’t know what else to do, but things were pretty tense. First night in Pienza was the climax and the followings days the denouement as we started to unpack what happened. Turns out Steve had some kind of dissociative PTSD episode. He’d never experienced it before so had no idea what was happening. I’d sure as hell never witnessed it before. And poor 13 yr old Tommy was stuck in the middle of it all. If all that sounds a bit dramatic, it was and it wasn’t. The climax I referred to was almost anti-climatic in that there was no big blow up, rather just an awareness of the severity of the situation and acknowledgement that whatever was happening with Steve meant we were dealing with a different person who none of us recognised and we didn’t know if or when the old Steve would come back. He didn’t turn into a horrible person, just a detached, impersonal stranger. Not the kind, warm, funny, thoughtful, caring Steve we were used to. So we’d been floundering around in the dark for over a week but over the next few days the fog began to slowly lift and we started to get the familiar Steve back. Things improved gradually from here and by our last week in Amalfi we were almost back to normal. It took its toll on all of us but particularly Steve, who is back to his old self but not without a lingering distress over what he’d experienced and the impact on me and Tommy.