We were making a bit of a mad dash back to Florence for sunset when I stopped to take this picture. Shortly after taking the picture, as we pushed on to Florence, I spotted a deer strolling through the vines of a vineyard near the road. I was shocked, I didn’t even know they had deer in Tuscany. It wasn’t until a half hour after that I realized it probably would have made for a good picture!
The Roman Pantheon was built during the reign of Augustus. The word Pantheon is actually Greek, for all gods, and the temple was dedicated to all the gods of Rome. It was later converted to a Roman Catholic church dedicated to St. Mary and the Martyrs. This re-dedication has probably contributed to this being one of the best preserved of Roman buildings.
Last night, I arrived back home after a few days in Rome. We had a great time there and I can officially say that I found the absolute best, thinnest pizza in the world near the Piazza Navona. Following stuffing my face and consuming a fair amount of beer and wine, I retired to bed relatively early in comparison to my London schedule because I wanted to get up and photograph Rome at sunrise in beautiful light and without the tourist hordes, which were still quite prevalent despite it being the January low season!
My first stop was the Trevi Fountain which I marched straight to as I wanted to get the below picture during the blue hours before the sun had actually come up, so that I could include the lit streetlight.
On my recent tour of Europe, I wasn’t particularly good at getting up early to take pictures. Partly because for most of the trip the weather wasn’t ideal but mainly because I tended to hang out way too late to even consider getting up early. Florence, on the other hand, inspired me. I couldn’t go there and not come away with some sunrise photos. So, I dragged my travel buddy up at the crack of dawn. We’d wander the empty streets of Florence before collecting our car to drive up to Pisa, down to Sienna, and back up to Florence.
The sunrise didn’t disappoint and I got this opportunity to take a super close up of Florence’s famous cathedral in front of blue sky and pink skies. Following this I bought two prosciutto on mini-croissant sandwiches for breakfast. It was a good start to the day.
Happy New Year everyone.
Now that we’re through the holiday season I’ve decided to get back to trying to post a daily photograph. This is a shot I took on my September country hopping week and a half in Europe. I liked the laundry hanging out to dry and the vines in this small street in the beautiful little town of San Gimignano.
I’ll be heading off island again in 10 days for London and Rome, so hopefully will be posting some photos from that trip soon.
After leaving Sienna, we plugged a few villages with “in-Chianti” in their names into the GPS so that we’d wind our way through the vineyards as the sun began to dip towards the horizon.
Before going to Tuscany I’d had a special request for those “round-bottomed pointy trees.” So, I was pretty glad when I found this row, lining the road we’d just driven down.
I’m back from my 11 day bounce around Europe. Our last stop was Florence, Italy. From there we drove out into Tuscany to visit Pisa and then Sienna. It wasn’t the most logical route but the journey between the two was beautiful, as was the drive back from Sienna to Florence.
Pisa is famous for the leaning tower, but the inside of the cathedral may be more jaw dropping.
There’s a lot of detail here, so I’ve linked the photo to a larger version… just click it for a better look.
This is one of the last photos that I took with my old set of camera gear, before some bastardos stole it out of our car near Genoa. This is a pretty little town on top of a hill called Alice Bel Colle. They’ve built a mound in the middle of the town with a viewing platform on top providing panoramic views of the surrounding vineyards draped over the rolling hills. I liked the way the the haphazard placement of buildings and roofs matched the haphazard distribution of vineyards in the surrounding area.
I wish I could say I’ve named this photo after a great experience in Ristorante Barchetta, but I didn’t hop off the ferry in this village. It looks like a nice spot for a bite though, or an afternoon beer. From the ferry I saw this lady in the green dress on her phone, while the rest of the world rushed by her. I wondered if it was an important call or if she was just having a a chat. What do you think?
There was something kind of creepy about these run down unkempt gates in Piedmont. I tried to capture it here by setting the camera down low in the brambles across the road. I paid a price for this one as the thorny vines took hold of my leg causing me to jerk away. Probably the wost reaction as it just dug the thorns deeper in.
