20. The Bencini Comet returns to Italy

In 2023 I took a 1950s Bencini Comet to Venice (see post 12), where it performed really well surrounded by the sublime architecture of this beautiful city. When we were planning to fly to Sicily in May 2026 and meander home by train, there was only one camera I wanted to take with me. It had to be the Bencini!

As I have already written about the technicalities and cleaning of this camera, this post will focus (see what I did there?) on the photos themselves. For me, the whole point of owning a vintage camera is to get it back to the life it had in the past; taking photos for the pleasure of the person behind the lens.

Just a reminder that this camera takes 127 film, a size with limited availability and consequently expensive. The next size up is 120 film, easier to source and much cheaper. With incredible luck, a brilliant film cutter device was designed and 3d printed by an Italian called Claudio, which he sells online at Camerhack. Armed with the Bencini Comet and 3 freshly cut films, we flew to Palermo.

First stop Erice, an ancient hilltop town overlooking the north west coast of Sicily. Despite a promising start the clouds quickly rolled in, resulting in dull washed out clouds.

If I'm honest, I'm not keen on this photo. The extremities are fuzzy, though it does capture some of the subtleties of the stonework.

I usually try to avoid people in my shots with vintage cameras because they date the photo. But they can also add scale, which I like in the archway to the main door.

Next stop Selinunte on the south west coast, an archaeological site of monuments from the ancient Greek city of Magna Graecia dated around 500-600 BC. It was one of the most important Greek colonies and originally had many buildings and temples. Most are now ruins, destroyed by earthquakes centuries ago. But the Temple of Hera, also called Temple E, was rebuilt in the 1950s. The sun cast deep shadows and the ridges on the Bencini catches the ridges on the columns well.

A 20 minute walk brings you to Temple D, thought to be dedicated to Athena, and only one main aspect survives. It's a pretty spectacular one though! Huge great columns support several tonnes of stone blocks, surrounded by fallen remains. Some imagination is needed to recreate the temple, but the Bencini did a reasonable job of capturing the scale of the ruins.

Our next stop was Ragusa in the south east of the island. We came here to explore an area where the Sicilian police series 'Montalbano' was filmed. A huge earthquake in 1693 destroyed much of this region, but it was rebuilt with ornate baroque architecture. Which is good from my point of view, because the spires, arches and doorways provide plenty of photographic opportunities!

In the region surrounding Mount Etna, we explored some of the towns and villages in the shadows of an active volcano. Closer to the coast we came across Savoca, unashamedly making the most of its fame as the location of scenes from 'The Godfather'.

Skipping the inevitable Godfather Tour, we walked through the picturesque village and came across views which haven't changed in decades. Luckily there were sufficient clouds around the mountains to offer some contrast in the sky and stop the scene from washing out completely in the Sicilian sun.

A few days, a ferry and a few trains later we were in Tivoli, about 30km outside Rome. We visited the famous gardens of Villa D'Este late one afternoon, a perfect time to enjoy these stunning gardens with water features at every turn. With very few other visitors about, there was plenty of time to compose this timeless shot, possibly my favourite vintage photo so far.

I love how the Bencini has captured all those shades and textures on the steps and wall. I hope I don't need to emphasise this, but I do not use AI, Photoshop or creative filters to change my photos. Sometimes I have to straighten or crop them, simply because the small viewfinder doesn't always give an accurate view of the composition. Occasionally I have to adjust the contrast slightly, because many vintage cameras do not have enough controls to adapt to poor or excessive lighting. But otherwise the photo is exactly what comes off the film.

Here's another photo from the Villa D'Este illustrating this point. Same camera, same location, same time of day. Yet the overhanging trees in this composition cast a lot more shadow over these steps, making it impossible to get the same results as above. The aperture, ISO and shutter speed are all fixed, unless you use the Bulb mode lever to do a (completely guessed) timed exposure.

On to Milan, city of ornate architecture and super-expensive shops. The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele ll is where 1% of people go to buy their Louis Vuitton, Armani & Gucci, and the remainder go to photograph the arcade. Guess which group we were in? Also seen here is a statue in the Courtyard of Honour at the Palazzo di Brera.

Milan also has a network of vintage trams, which really should be ideal subjects for a vintage camera, but are perhaps less than perfect when surrounded by modern buildings.

Having meandered pleasantly through Italy, we then fast forwarded to Paris on a high speed Frecciarossa train. After a brief stop to visit the fabulous Musee D'Orsay (resulting in 2 completely useless photos) we made for home by Eurostar. Bencini Comet - Job Done.