The steps of the Teatro Massimo

The Teatro Massimo is the largest opera house in Italy, and its entrance was built to be arrived at: a broad, shallow flight of steps the full width of the building, rising to six Corinthian columns, with a bronze lion and rider on a plinth at each side.

Steps are the most useful furniture a photographer can have. These are wide enough for a group to spread across without crowding, shallow enough to be comfortable in formal shoes, and they put your subjects above street level so the traffic behind the camera disappears from the frame. The portico gives even shade all day; the columns give vertical rhythm; the lions give scale and a strong single-object background for a close portrait.

The piazza in front is pedestrian and mostly empty before mid-morning. From late afternoon the steps fill with people sitting, and on performance evenings they are the theatre's foyer. Nothing here needs a ticket unless you want to go inside, which has guided-tour hours worth checking. Via Maqueda below is pedestrianised in the evenings, which makes the walk down to the Quattro Canti a natural continuation of the session.