This image was shot at O'Canonico in Sorrento, Italy, which is my favorite restaurant anywhere. As I sit here typing this out I am trying hard to think of any other restaurant where the food is better & I just can't. There are certainly some in NYC, Miami Beach and LA that come very close. One of the main reasons the food is just wonderful is the location, across the Gulf of Naples from Mount Vesuvius, which over the last several millennia, has erupted many times and in the course of these, have violently belched & spewed nutrient rich volcanic ash over the entire region. As a result the local people can grow food here that you just can't get anywhere. Also most of the food is grown locally by hand, you can't really use machinery due to the terrain. Planted by hand, picked & packed by hand & travels just a few miles instead of hundreds or thousands of miles as is does in the USA. The food is grown for it's flavor instead of how well it looks after it has traveled thousands of miles by train & truck.

Well before I got on the plane to fly to Italy I knew I was going to eat several times at this restaurant. For me, it is not really a choice but a delightful requirement. Everyone who was with our dinner party consumed, at a minimum, what normally would have been 2 meals for anyone of us. And some of us ate 2.5 times a normal meal with delight. (Put another way, we walked in & "with reasonable assistance" we waddled out.) The wine being poured in this image is a desert wine that after everyone at our table tried it agreed that it was truly like drinking desert and quite possibly the best they have ever had. I know it was for me.

Shot with a Canon Professional Digital Camera set at 1/30 second, f3.5 3200 ISO in RAW mode with a 16-35 mm at 35 mm Canon zoom lens & processed in Photoshop.

If you would like to use this image, or any of my images for mock or comp use, please just ask. There is never a charge for this service. Any educational use is permitted without charge, unless published, but please ask first. All commercial use is available only with a limited copyright release prior to use from the copyright holder, Steve Thornton. Thanks for looking!