@andrea_frazzetta

At sunset, 4 young friends enjoy the view of the Gravina di Puglia. Gravina, an ancient cereal and wine center, enters history in the seventh century BC, as evidenced by archaeological findings. This is the region of the ancient civilizations of the rock, whose carved cities are an immense heritage of this part of Italy. The Appian Way, which linked Rome to Brindisi, passed through Gravina. The Itineraries place it 20 miles from Venusia, on the branch of the Appian Way which led directly to Tarentum. From the project “The Appian Way” @natgeo July Issue #italy #appianway #gravinainpuglia #documentaryphotography #SonyImagingAmbassador #sonyalpha #sonygm #alphauniversebysonyeu

The Appian Way spans 360 miles, four regions, and 100 municipalities. It intersects cities, villages, mountains, and farmland. The road is often buried by modernity or swallowed by nature like here in Basilicata where the route is lost among fields of wheat. The original Appian Way undulate in and out of visibility, like the back of a whale swimming in the ocean. My latest project for National Geographic is online at the link in bio, and in print in the July issue. @natgeo #italy #appianway #lastrada #documentaryphotography #SonyImagingAmbassador #sonyalpha #sonygm #alphauniversebysonyeu

As I wandered through the Appian Regional Park I came across the young players of the Cinecittà soccer team. The Gerini is a historic soccer field, created 60 years ago, in the popular Quadraro neighborhood a few meters from the arches of the Roman aqueduct Felice. I was surprised and enchanted by the overlap between daily life and millennia-old archaeology, and once I entered the field, seeing my enthusiasm, the coach began to tell me how the place was an iconography of the city of Rome and that Federico Fellini had even filmed there the first scene of "La Dolce Vita". That same evening I watched the movie again. And I realized that I had unintentionally used the exact same framework of the opening scene. The Appia has been a feature in daily life for Italians since its construction in 312 B.C. In fact, Italians still refer to the route with reverence as Regina Viarum—”the queen of roads.” My latest project for National Geographic is online - link in bio - and in print in the July issue. @natgeo #italy #roma #appianway #lastrada #documentaryphotography #SonyImagingAmbassador #sonyalpha #sonygm #alphauniversebysonyeu

After 2000 years of stratifications the Appian Way can still be such an important place for the people who live along its path. This is true in the center of the city of Terracina where it’s a tradition for just-married couples to throw their bouquet along the ancient road and take photos on its stones. The Appia’s meaning for couples is “the path they have to walk together”. The route, begun in 312 B.C., meanders out of Eternal City and across Italy’s southern regions until it reaches the eastern port city of Brindisi. It helped inspire the saying “All roads lead to Rome,” and in Italy it is still called Regina Viarum—the Queen of Roads. From my latest project for National Geographic, online now, soon in print in the July issue @natgeo #italy #theappianway #lastrada #bride #documentaryphotography #SonyImagingAmbassador #sonyalpha #sonygm #alphauniversebysonyeu

At the end of an evening in the Appian Way Park in which I attended an outdoor screening of a neo-realist movie (Mario Monicelli's Cops and Robbers) I found myself walking along the street until I came across this small trattoria that sets up a few tables right on the ancient Roman basalt. I timidly began to take pictures of the diners and then found myself dining and drinking wine with them, right on the 2000-year-old stones. It got dark and around midnight I took this portrait of Giovanni who lives a few steps away. Suddenly the scenes of the movie I had just watched were in front of me. - The few tables of the historic trattoria "Qui nun se more mai" ("Here we never die") are placed directly on the ancient paving stones. The director Federico Fellini was one of the affectionate patrons of the restaurant now run by the two brothers Armando and Erminio. From my latest project for National Geographic, online now, in prints in the July issue @natgeo #italy #theappianway #lastrada #photography #photooftheday #documentaryphotography #SonyImagingAmbassador #sonyalpha #sonygm #alphauniversebysonyeu

Online today the digital version of my project on the Appian Way for National Geographic. The Appian Way is the most famous Roman road still in existence and, according to modern criteria, the first road that was ever built. This wonder, dating to 312 BC., meanders out of the eternal city and across Italy’s southern regions until it reaches the port city of Brindisi, covering a distance of 360 miles. The Appia is the reason we say “All roads lead to Rome,” and in Italy, it is still reverentially called Regina Viarum, “the Queen of Roads”. But its legacy has been largely neglected, and its stones buried under millennia of history. After centuries of abandon, a two-year revitalization is underway with the aim to re-establish the route and save the immense archaeological heritage spread along its path. To realize this project I traveled for seven weeks to eventually find myself in my grandfather's town, just a few kilometers from where I myself was born, in the far southeast of Italy. This sense of distance from the heart of the country and closeness to an east beyond the sea is something that is strongly rooted in our identity. The Appia in some way represents for me an ideal line that can sew up the soul of a territory. At the end of my journey, I rediscovered my country as I never imagined I would. I was amazed by the beauty and outraged by the ugliness of the road’s current state of disrepair. Centuries of population growth and periods of lawless development have left this archeological and cultural treasure in private hands or completely neglected. Protection is now well underway, but without visitors, the Appia could be forgotten again. “Walking, is the most political act one can do to change the landscape.” Riccardo Carnovalini, walker and explorer of the Appian Way. @natgeo #italy #theappianway #lastrada #viaappia #documentaryphotography #nationalgeographic

From the series “The Zagros Trail” for The New York Times Magazine. There is a project underway to build a 150-mile-long hiking trail through the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq, from the Nineveh Plains to the snow-covered mountains that border Iran. The route approaches zones recently liberated from ISIS and borderlands where Turkey is fighting an asymmetric war against guerrilla fighters of the P.K.K. Despite these complications, if all goes well, the tentatively named Zagros Mountain Trail will stitch into a single two-week-long route fragments of walks following old canals and seasonal grazing paths, passing Byzantine temples and Jewish shrines, all while navigating around some seven million unexploded land mines from the Iran-Iraq and Persian Gulf wars. @nytmagazine #Kurdistan #voyages #peace #photography #photooftheday #documentaryphotography #SonyImagingAmbassador #sonyalpha #sonygm #alphauniversebysonyeu

Lalish is a mountain valley and temple in Shekhan, Duhok Governorate in Iraq. It is the holiest temple of the Yazidis. The Yazidis have inhabited the mountains of northwestern Iraq for centuries, and the region is home to their holy places, shrines, and ancestral villages. Yazidism is an ancient faith, with a rich oral tradition that integrates some Islamic beliefs with elements of Zoroastrianism, the ancient Persian religion, and Mithraism, a mystery religion originating in the Eastern Mediterranean. This combining of various belief systems, known religiously as syncretism, was part of what branded them as heretics among Muslims. For their beliefs, they have been the target of hatred for centuries. Yazidis have faced the possibility of genocide many times over. Photographed for the @nytmagazine #Kurdistan #voyages #photography #lalish #yazidis #portrait #girl #peace

In the streets of the Akre ‘qayseri’ or covered bazaar. Akre is a little historic town located at the edge of the Nineveh Plains, it was traditionally a mixed town of Muslims, Jews, and Christians. A project is underway to build a 150-mile-long hiking trail through the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The full story is in The New York Times Magazine Voyages Issue - link in bio. @nytmagazine #Kurdistan #voyages #photography #photooftheday #documentaryphotography #photojournalism #reportage #SonyImagingAmbassador #sony #sonyalpha #sonygm #Sonygmaster #alphauniversebysonyeu

Yazidis visiting at Lalish during the Friday holiday. Lalish is a mountain valley and temple in Shekhan, Duhok Governorate in Iraq. It is the holiest temple of the Yazidis. The Yazidis have inhabited the mountains of northwestern Iraq for centuries, and the region is home to their holy places, shrines, and ancestral villages. The full story is in The New York Times Magazine - Voyages Issue - link in bio. @nytmagazine #Kurdistan #voyages #photography #photooftheday #documentaryphotography #photojournalism #reportage #SonyImagingAmbassador #sony #sonyalpha #sonygm #Sonygmaster #alphauniversebysonyeu

There is just one day left to own these iconic prints from more than 100 world-renowned National Geographic photographers and support those caught in conflict zones. The sale ends this Tuesday, May 10. Visit vitalimpacts.org and follow @vital.impacts. 100% of profits will be donated to @DirectRelief who are on the ground now in Ukraine and around the world providing critical humanitarian aid. Photos by @amivitale @ciriljazbec @daniele_volpe @dina_litovsky @lucalocatelliphoto @nadiashiracohen @nicholesobecki @paoloverzone @rubensalgadoescudero @habjouqa #war #conflict #ukraine #solidarity #vitalimpacts

Zorgavan is a river valley of old burled trees and sparkling waterfalls. The valley is famous for its role in the origins of the Kurdish insurgency, and has escaped the deforestation and oil exploration that have marred landscapes elsewhere in northern Iraq. A project is underway to build a 150-mile-long hiking trail through the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq — from the Nineveh Plains to the snow-covered mountains that border Iran. Read the full story by @benmauk from @nytmag at the link in bio. @nytmagazine #Kurdistan #voyages #SonyImagingAmbassador #sony #sonyalpha #sonygm #Sonygmaster #alphauniversebysonyeu

Hashtka, the kids from the village meet the walkers passing through on the Zagros trail. There is a project underway to build a 150-mile-long hiking trail through the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq, from the Nineveh Plains to the snow-covered mountains that border Iran. The route approaches zones recently liberated from ISIS and borderlands where Turkey is fighting an asymmetric war against guerrilla fighters of the P.K.K. Despite these complications, if all goes well, the tentatively named Zagros Mountain Trail will stitch into a single two-week-long route fragments of walks following old canals and seasonal grazing paths, passing Byzantine temples and Jewish shrines, all while navigating around some seven million unexploded land mines from the Iran-Iraq and Persian Gulf wars. The full story is in The New York Times Magazine - Voyages Issue - link in bio. @nytmagazine #Kurdistan #voyages - - - #SonyImagingAmbassador #sony #sonyalpha #sonygm #Sonygmaster #alphauniversebysonyeu

Evening life in Akre’s old town center. Akre is a Kurdish city where people have been living without interruption since the Iron Age. A project is underway to build a 150-mile-long hiking trail through the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq — from the Nineveh Plains to the snow-covered mountains that border Iran. Can the first long-distance trail in Kurdistan knit together a nation? More in The New York Times Magazine Voyages Issue - link in bio. @nytmagazine #Kurdistan #voyages #SonyImagingAmbassador #sony #sonyalpha #sonygm #Sonygmaster #alphauniversebysonyeu

Men from the Yazidis community visiting Lalish during Friday festivities. Lalish is a mountain valley and temple in Shekhan, Duhok Governorate in Iraq. A project to build a 150-mile-long hiking trail through the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq, from the Nineveh Plains to the snow-covered mountains that border Iran. The route approaches zones recently liberated from ISIS and borderlands where Turkey is fighting an asymmetric war against guerrilla fighters of the P.K.K. Despite these complications, if all goes well, the tentatively named Zagros Mountain Trail will stitch into a single two-week-long route fragments of walks following old canals and seasonal grazing paths, passing Byzantine temples and Jewish shrines, all while navigating around some seven million unexploded land mines from the Iran-Iraq and Persian Gulf wars. Once finished, the Zagros trail will be the first long-distance hiking route not only in Iraq but very likely in all of Kurdistan, a conceptual and unrealized country of mountains, pine forests, deserts and thousands of rural villages cleaved by colonial-era rulers into parts of modern-day Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. Read the full story by @benmauk from @nytmag at the link in bio. @nytmagazine #Kurdistan #voyages #SonyImagingAmbassador #sony #sonyalpha #sonygm #Sonygmaster #alphauniversebysonyeu