And if the summer's budget allows for only armchair tours . . .

Then I can think of no better armchair tour companion than, Robert Jones. Robert Jones and his Hasselblad Xpan camera, that is. The photographer and publisher recently returned from San Juan Bautista, the location for the turning point and dramatic conclusion of Vertigo.  Followers of this site will recognize Jones from an earlier post of mine (you'll find that post here).  My admiration for his work now grows with this current blog that takes images from the film and matches them to photographs he took on the recent tour.  The match up is often uncanny--and no accident, as Jones is a fellow Vertigo fan and his Hasselblad has the same ratio, etc as the VistaVision cameras with which Hitchcock and Robert Burks filmed Vertigo.  His site is linked to this posting--I've featured a set from the page below.  Happy virtual Hitchcock traveling.

San Juan Bautista Mission as realized by Hitchcock and art director Henry Bumstead and the Mission as it is today. (Photograph by Robert Jones)