Paul Pacini's photography show at the Myrna Loy Center is more than a collection of pretty pictures, many of which are admittedly stunning.

The exhibit, which runs through January, chronicles both an inner and outer personal journey through Italy.

Thus the show's name, "Passaggio: Passage Through Italy and Self."

"It was the passage of me through an experience, or experience through me -- the language, culture, smells, everything.

"It can also mean a ride...like hitching a ride through Italy, hitching an experience."

Pacini's photos were taken on a three-month visit to Italy, two of which he spent working on an organic farm, Casa Lanzarotti, near the village of Borgo Val Di Taro.

All the photos were originally taken with black-and-white 35 mm film, but many have been hand colored by Pacini, using lithographic ink.

"I like to think that I color a black-and-white image to look not like it did in reality, but to appear as it would in one's memory," he writes in a gallery statement.

The photo images seem on the verge of transforming into a painting before one's eyes.

Some photos are taken with regular black-and-white film, others with infrared film, which gives a glowing effect to any object in the photo that reflects a lot of radiant energy, such as trees.

The infrared images are often softer, he said, making them look more like watercolors rather than photos -- such as his picture of Ponte Sant'Angelo, the Bridge of Angels, in Rome.

The image is arresting not only for its luminous, watercolor quality and dramatic sky, but also its composition. Beneath the bridge's arch is a view of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

After Pacini develops the images, he hand colors them with a palette of hues he's mixed from lithographic inks, which are applied with either a cotton ball or cotton swab. For very fine details he uses photographic colored pencils.

Pacini takes a digital photo of each scene to capture the original colors -- as a guide for his later hand coloring.

Landscapes, cityscapes and architecture are his favorite subjects.

But the show includes portraits of some of the people he met along the way. Next to their photos are their handwritten notes.

One photo is of Daniele, a French man who comes each year to work at the Casa Lanzarotti farm.

Daniele's note is a poetic celebration of the chestnut.

Also, framed near many of the photos are excerpts from a diary Pacini kept while traveling.

"I wanted people to get a feel for the people I was meeting and how I was feeling -- what better way than to read someone's diary."

Although Pacini's heritage is Italian, it wasn't until he and his wife took a trip to Italy in 2005 as members of the local Musikanten choral ensemble that he felt his interest in Italy awaken.

"Suddenly I realized I really wanted to know about Italy."

Soon he was searching for a way to live and work there, and he discovered the World Organization of Organic Farms, which allows foreigners to live and work on family farms.

Pacini also began to take Italian lessons.

"I struggle with it terribly," he admitted of his attempts to learn Italian, but he's persisting.

And he's already planned another trip. This time he'll visit the island of Sardinia and the province of Puglia in southern Italy.

Pacini shared a certain disbelief and almost numbness that he actually took this journey that he so exquisitely chronicled.

The former game warden and retired teacher of science and photography points to his newly grown long hair, a style he never would have worn previously.

He said it fits his new life -- that of an artist.

As Paul "Passini" (the American pronunciation of his name) he never could have done this type of journey, he said.

But as Paul "Pachini" (the Italian pronunciation), he can.

Reporter Marga Lincoln: 447-4074 or marga.lincoln@helenair.com