D and A are close friends of mine, and when they asked me to photograph their engagement session in Cinque Terre I said yes immediately … not just because I love them, but because Cinque Terre is the kind of place that makes every photographer’s heart beat faster.

The five villages: Corniglia, Manarola, Monterosso, Riomaggiore, Vernazza, cling to the cliffs of the Italian Riviera Ligure above the Ligurian Sea, each one painted in a different shade of the same impossible palette. We walked the colorful coastline, stopped at the most iconic spots, Via dell’Amore, the harbor at Manarola, the viewpoints above Vernazza, and let the scenery do what it always does in Cinque Terre: make everything feel a little cinematic.

There was rain for a stretch, which gave us that moody grey light that Italy does so well. Then the sun came back and turned the whole coast golden. We finished with a Granita Siciliana and the particular kind of happiness that only comes from a day well spent in a beautiful place with people you love.

If you’re planning an engagement session or portraits in Cinque Terre, same-sex, different-sex, any couple, I know this coastline well and would LOVE to shoot here again.