Marina Corricella

Corricella is the oldest settlement on Procida and still the working one: a curve of quay with fishing boats tied up in front of it and houses climbing the slope behind in layers of ochre, rose, cream and faded blue. Local tradition says the colours were chosen so that a fisherman could pick out his own house from the water, and whether or not that is the origin, the effect is a wall of colour that no other village in the bay matches.

The architecture is what makes it photograph so well: barrel-vaulted arches at ground level, outside staircases climbing between the houses, flat roofs used as terraces, and nets and washing strung across the gaps. Nothing is straight, and every window is a different colour.

The harbour faces roughly south-east, so morning light lands flat on the façades and lifts the colours; by late afternoon the slope is in its own shade and the picture becomes about texture rather than colour. Both are worth having, but the colour shot is a morning job.

No car can get down here — you arrive on foot, down long flights of steps from the town above, which is exactly why the quay stays calm even in season. The steps are steep and often wet, the quay is narrow and lined with restaurant tables in the evening, and fishermen work here all morning: keep out of the way of the boats and the ropes.