Lama Monachile at sunrise

There are two shots here and they need different positions. From the bridge on the Via Traiana you look down the cove to the open sea, with the cliff houses stacked on both sides; from the pebbles at the bottom you shoot back up at the bridge arch with the town above it. The stairs down are steep and wet in places, so the descent belongs at the start of the session, not in the middle.

The cove faces east-north-east, so sunrise lands straight into it and the water is still. That first hour is the difference between a photograph and a crowd scene: by ten in summer the pebbles are covered with towels and the bridge is a viewing platform.

Off-season the cove works all day, and winter storms turn it into something else entirely — spray on the cliffs, nobody about, and a town that looks like it did before anyone posted it.