In a situation like this where you have high-contrast and a big difference in exposure between light and dark tones, you'll NEVER get a good balance. My advice would be to expose for the highlights - the lightest part of the scene, and not worry about the shadows at all. The shadows under the trees are going to be black anyway - unless you open up 5 stops or something. So the best thing is to get the light/medium tones right. If you had underexposed this by about 1 1/2 - 2 stops, it would be fine - and the shadows would be the same. You can't get any blacker than black. But really, the best thing would be to wait until late afternoon. In italy, 4- 6 o'clock is the best light you'll get. Any later and it starts to get too red. mac PS Lavoravo a Forte Dei Marmi, quindi conosco quella zona.