What can one say about this gorgeous, sun-splashed peninsula, but mama mia! While I didn't find true romance in this land of love and gelato, I was richly romanced by its Renaissance art, Roman ruins, seductive landscapes and, of course, delightful food. But as with all road trips, it pays to be prepared if you plan to have a scrapbook of Kodak moments to look back on.

The preparation

Every overseas trip begins at home. Depending on how long and where you are traveling to, it pays to do a little homework before you leave the country. For example, if you are traveling in winter, you'll probably need more batteries (they drain a lot faster in cold climates) and perhaps a few airtight plastic bags (to prevent condensation on your camera).

Since it was summer in Italy when I left, I knew I had less to worry about. For the trip, I brought along my Canon EOS 5D fitted with a EF 24-70mm F2.8L lens, two batteries, two 2GB CompactFlash cards, charger, B+W circular polarizer (dead weight), lint-free cloth and a dust blower. I decided against a tripod as I didn't want to have any checked-in luggage, a decision which I would regret.

Go wide, very wide

Some of the most charming travel pictures are shot in wide landscape orientation. You know you are standing before one when you can't take in the entire scene with your eyes, even with your peripheral vision. Below are the stunning skylines of Florence, Rome, and one of the world's greatest public spaces, St Peter's Square in the Vatican City, which are stitched together for the panoramic effect.

The view from the top of the Duomo. Perched on the green hills (in the background) on the south bank of the Arno river is Piazza Michelangelo--another popular tourist attraction which offers a great view of Florence.

When you are that high up, even the massive St Peter's Square look tiny.

Fisheye lenses that go as wide as 14mm are great for dealing with such situations, but these glasses don't come cheap and I didn't have one with me. Even at 24mm, my lens couldn't cover the sheer sights that stood before my eyes. Stepping back wasn't an option at the domes of the cathedrals, and any further back I got from St Peter's Square would have me end up as road kill. And you know how bad the traffic in Rome can get.

The sheer size of St Peter's Square wouldn't have been captured in its full glory without taking several shots and stitching them together during post-processing.

One of the ways to overcome this is to take multiple successive shots, panning from left to right (or vice versa). Instead of taking in a landscape orientation, I shot in portrait mode. The reason for this was to minimize barrel distortions at wide angles which can make stitching of pictures during post-processing more tedious. When you are shooting in portrait, you also get more of the scenery in each frame, which can be cropped later if you wish. But chances are that you'll keep the blue, blue skies. I did.

If your camera allows, locking the exposure by setting the aperture and shutter speed is another good practice to help reduce the post-processing workflow. Otherwise, you may have to correct the exposures of individual frames, so they all look the same during the stitching process.