It's like taking part in a documentary, or playing a role in a movie. My skin was tingling. I felt touched by something eternal and slightly wicked, and was just dying to get the cameras out of their silver boxes and capture every rise and fall of the landscape.

Our location for the week is a renaissance villa designed by Michelangelo for Niccolo Machiavelli in the early 1500’s, now newly renovated with frescos by the great master himself still so fresh on the walls they look as if they had been painted yesterday. Well, the day before yesterday. The villa sits in the midst of a large estate that produces the famous Chianti Classico wine. I was already licking my lips and wondering how to use the classic wine in a classic series of shots. My mind was turning…red wine, beautiful girls, the silvery light.

I didn't plan to do any castings at the villa, frustrating of my hosts who, I'm sure, had imagined flocks of nubile girls running naked through the vineyards like the nymphs in the big oil painting at the top of the marble stairs.

They'll be perfectly content when they meet the two models who have been booked. I have the former Miss Venezuela coming up from her new base in Milan, a girl with the glamour and beauty befitting this grand location; and a girl flying in from London. She is an athletic, unusually charismatic model whose devotion to yoga will add a touch of serenity to the compositions.

Stay Tuned

Petter