Many years ago, I spent an evening at a friend’s place, looking at the many photos he’d taken on his months-long Eurail jaunt. When he got to the last page of the last album, he looked at me thoughtfully.

“You’re the first of my friends to sit through them all,” he said. I smiled. He seemed surprised. I was not.

I am as fascinated by everyone else’s travel photos as I am with taking my own ― particularly when the photos are of (a) places where I’ve been or (b) places where I want to go. And these days, thanks to inventions like Facebook, I get to see a lot of photos. Particularly around this time of year when everyone begins posting their holiday photos.

Since I’m not too motivated to write much right now, I’m going to keep it simple over the next few weeks by posting a series of travel photos of my own. The only link regarding the subject matter is they are all photos of places my dear friends and family have had (or will have) the good fortune to explore this summer. You could say I’m continuing the conversation they started by the photos they’ve shared on Facebook.

First up: a photo I took of a passageway in Siena, Italy, in October 2007.