The rolling hills of Tuscany bathed in late evening light. I shot this image on our first trip to Italy back in 2014. There’s so much history in this part of the world. Tuscany has an immense cultural and artistic heritage, expressed in the region’s churches, palaces, art galleries, museums, villages, and piazzas. Wildlife and nature are not the first things that come to mind when traveling in Italy.
However, Italy still does have some wild animals. They include hares, deer, porcupines, and wild boar. Wild animals aren’t common, however, and it wasn’t until we made it to the Dolomites that I had a chance to photograph alpine choughs, a bird that looks similar to our American crow. A big part of why I travel is to remind myself how lucky we are here in America where we have immense acres of public land and relatively large numbers of wild animals.