An outdoor fresco in Florence

While walking the streets of Florence, my daughter and I would get lost at every turn. But as you can see, getting lost in Italy is quite rewarding.

The word fresco comes from the Italian wordaffresco [afˈfresːko] which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes were often made during the Renaissance and other early time periods.

Buon fresco technique consists of painting in pigment mixed with water on a thin layer of wet, fresh, lime mortar or plaster, for which the Italian word for plaster, intonaco, is used. Because of the chemical makeup of the plaster, a binder is not required, as the pigment mixed solely with the water will sink into the intonaco, which itself becomes the medium holding the pigment. The pigment is absorbed by the wet plaster; after a number of hours, the plaster dries and reacts with the air: it is this chemical reaction which fixes the pigment particles in the plaster.