LucadeaLuca is the creator of this site. He travels the world for work and loves taking photographs and sharing them with all his visitors.

Val di Canepa street at Sestri Levante.
Among my photographs of Sestri Levante, I was still missing a view of this well-known street, mainly associated with the school and the cemetery. At the beginning of the street, however, my attention was drawn to those large residential buildings, which look considerably more modern than much of the surrounding area.
The photograph shows the start of Val di Canepa street, and what I like about this view is the contrast between the road and the buildings around it. The large apartment blocks immediately give the scene a more urban character, while the street continues toward places that are part of everyday life in Sestri Levante. It is not necessarily the kind of view people look for when searching for the town, but that is precisely why I wanted to include it in my photographic collection.
When I photograph a place I already know through other images, I often realize that some ordinary corners have been left out. Over time I have photographed many different parts of Sestri Levante, but I had not yet taken a photograph of this section of Val di Canepa street. I wanted to add it without trying to turn an everyday scene into something it is not.
The street is particularly familiar because of two very different landmarks: the school and the cemetery. They obviously have completely different functions, yet both are part of the everyday geography of the town. For local residents they can be ordinary points of reference, while for a photographer they help identify an area that is rarely represented in the more typical images of Sestri Levante.
In Sestri Levante, Liguria, Italy, many of the best-known photographs focus on the sea, the Bay of Silence, the Bay of Fables, and the historic center. Val di Canepa street belongs to another side of the town, a more residential and everyday one. I find this side worth documenting because it shows Sestri Levante beyond the postcard views.
This photograph is not really about a monument or a particular attraction. I was interested in the relationship between the street and the large buildings at its entrance. They stand out immediately because of their size and because they appear to belong to a more modern phase of urban development.
The contrast becomes quite clear even if you do not know the area well. The street leads toward familiar local destinations, while the buildings at the beginning give the scene a distinctly urban appearance. Details like these can easily be overlooked when photography concentrates only on the most scenic or recognizable parts of a town.
One of the things I enjoy about keeping a photographic record of Sestri Levante is being able to put very different kinds of images next to each other. A photograph of the sea tells one story, while an ordinary residential street tells another. Neither needs to be more important. Together, they help create a more complete personal portrait of the town.
I wanted to photograph this particular view because a street mainly known for a school and a cemetery might not seem like an obvious subject. Yet these everyday places are part of what makes a town recognizable to the people who live there. They also reveal how different periods of construction have gradually become part of the same urban landscape.
There is a small linguistic curiosity in the Italian word “casermoni”, which I used to describe the large buildings. It is an informal expression commonly used for sizeable residential blocks because of their appearance and scale, rather than because they have any specific architectural classification. In this case, it simply describes the impression they make when seen from the street.
If you are looking for what to see in Sestri Levante, Val di Canepa street probably will not be among the first places suggested by a typical sightseeing guide. For me, however, that is part of its interest. It represents the everyday side of the town, away from the most photographed viewpoints, and it adds another piece to my personal visual map of Sestri Levante.
This photograph also connects naturally with the other Sestri Levante images I have published on the blog. Each street, building, and less familiar corner adds another small part to the story, gradually creating a portrait of the town that goes beyond its most famous views.

Do you know Val di Canepa street, and have you ever noticed the contrast between these large buildings and the rest of the street? Add a comment or go to the bottom of the site to read what other visitors have written.

Photos taken with Canon EOS M100 and lens Canon EF-S 10-18.

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