Rome at Night

Rome, nightfall. Last night of vacation. One digital point and shoot camera down, no chance of recovery. All rolls of film have been used, save for one last lonely roll of black and white film. Tripod; borrowed. Three subway stations, several dark alleys and plenty of map-consulting. Needless to say, I'm amazed any of the shots turned out!

Roman Architecture

What's a visit to Rome without a photo or two of some Roman columns!?

Florence, Italy

The Tuscan sky gets a lot of attention, and for good reason. Those clouds hanging over the Fiume Arno are just magical.

(Original Florence post can be found here.)

Vernazza Village

Vernazza - Cinque Terre - Italy

I finally got organized, and have printed and scanned the Holga shots from Europe. These shots are from Vernazza, the second village in the Cinque Terre lineup.

I was excited to see these pictures... the color in the shots is exactly how I remembered it on the day... if that makes sense at all!

(Original Vernazza post is here.)

Ode to Loren(zo)

My brother, Loren, often laments that he wasn't born Italian... the food, the clothing, the lifestyle... ! Travelling through Italy this past summer, I started to notice all the variations on his name... Lorenzi, Lorenzo and the ever flamboyant "Lorenzale"! So while he may have missed out on the spoils of being born Italian... he did get an Italian name ;) After all, isn't a good name more desirable than great riches?

Ponte Vechhio, Florence

Original


Magazine option


Silver option

Magazine option

Fun with the iPhone Camera Bag app. I actually got a better shot here with my iPhone than I did with my camera, so don't know what that says about my technical skills!

Zara, Italy

Here's a fun pic of the Zara store in Florence taken on my iPhone. I just clued in that I have a tone of iPhone shots that I can share, so will edit some of those to post.

Also - I finally organized the Holga shots from Europe to be developed... so once I get them back and scan them, I'll be posting them as well. Quite excited... there are some fun ones in there!

Happy weekend everyone!

June 18 - Modern Rome

Ara Pacis


Ara Pacis


Ara Pacis

Ara Pacis

Open Colonna

Open Colonna

Open Colonna

Open Colonna

So sad... our last day in Rome before flying home the next day. I decided I wanted a relatively relaxing day, as I knew I would be hitting the ground running when I returned home. I figured that while the previous day was very much ancient Rome, I wanted to discover a bit of modern Rome. I was reading my Wallpaper* City Guide, and found a place called B-Gallery in Trastevere. It was a bookstore/cafe/exhibition space, with photography, architecture and design books. It sounded like a lovely way to while away the afternoon.

It was such a stunning day, I decided to walk from our hotel to Trastevere. I walked along the river in the shade of the trees, it was such a pretty walk, stopping on the way at a place I had spotted the day before for lunch. Casa & Bottega is a fresh food cafe, with white built-in bookcases and booths. Lunch was so tasty and fresh: le carpaccio di tunno fresco con pele rosa e crostini complete with a bottle of San Pellegrino and finished off with a cappuccino.

From lunch I walked to B-Gallery. I wandered around, back and forth in the square where it was meant to be and could not find it. Finally, I found out from some shop merchants that it was closed on Fridays! Number one rule of travel, find out if the place you are headed to is open that day. So many galleries, museums, places of interest, are closed on random days of the week. To save disappointment, call ahead! Don't walk 5km like I did, only to be met with a closed door!

Feeling pretty bummed, and having no Plan B, I sat down on some steps and opened up the Wallpaper* City Guide again. I had no idea where I was, and had walked miles away from everything. In the 24 Hours section of the guide, there was a picture of a very cool restaurant called Open Colonna. I thought it might be interesting to take a look, and then would put me back more in the center of Rome to meet up with the others later on. Having had enough of walking, I hopped on the Metro line to take me to Repubblica, where I could walk a short distance to the restaurant. At one euro a ride, the Metro is definitely the way to get around.

Turns out that Open Colonna is part of the Palazzo delle Esposizioni art gallery. While wandering around, looking for the restaurant, I realized that the art gallery was pretty cool. I decided to have a wander around the neoclassical exhibition hall. (Thanks Wikipedia!) The day continued to improve when I found out that one of the exhibits was a famous Italian photographer, Mimmo Jodice. It was a real treat to wander through the cool, quiet, exhibition rooms admiring large canvases of black and white photos of modern, yet timeless Italian life. The sea series were my favorite. (If this is your kind of thing, do a Google image search on Mimmo Jodice for his images. They are stunning.)

Feeling peckish now, finally headed to Open Colonna. The space was stunning and I immediately wanted to move in. The walls and ceiling are glass, then rest of the space is white save for the punches of color in the lime green and hot pink furniture. Upon closer inspection, the colorful furniture was actually painted foam. How cool is that?! I was the only customer there, and when I entered, the waitress told me they were closed for lunch. I explained I just wanted a snack, did she have anything? She promised she would go look, and to have a seat. Of course I chose the pink couch! She returned with a dessert plate; chocolate pistachio cake and a tiny raspberry custard tart. The cake was simply divine, it was such a happy moment in time.

Later that night, we returned to the Trevi Fountain to say goodbye to Rome. Legend states that if you throw three coins over your left shoulder with your right hand, this ensures your return trip to Rome. Here's hoping...

June 17 - Part I: Colosseum

Colosseum

Ah, what is Rome if you don't overdo it? The ancient Romans went over the top with their feasts, and buildings and taking over the world. We overdid it with sightseeing. Well, I did at least. The others were sensible to cut the sightseeing into two days. I wanted to get the sights over with so I could relax one day before flying home. (More on that in the next day's post.)

Back to my story. We hit up the Colosseum in the morning. We bought tickets on one of those tourist open air bus dealies... you know, when in Rome and all! ... Anyway, it was a cooker of a day, and sitting on top of the bus, you had some idea of what it would feel like to be a meatball in a frying pan. By the time we reached the Colosseum, we were feeling slightly well done.
Peddlers were peddling their wares as soon as we disembarked off the bus... and thank you, I will take that pink umbrella for €5. Best money spent on the trip! We snuck into the Colosseum by paying €20 to a guide that would skip us straight to the beginning of the line. Again, money well spent. Despite the temperature in the high 30s, it didn't take away from the awesomeness of the Colosseum. To imagine them building it almost 2000 years ago, with the tools of the day, and the crowds attending the insane events they held there... it really is amazing.

June 16 - Rome

Egyptian obelisk from Ramses II in the center of Piazza del Popolo


Looking up at a church in the Tridente neighborhood


Trevi Fountain

Trevi Fountain

Trevi Fountain

Lamp standard, Trevi Fountain

Pantheon

Pantheon, close up

There are the places you have on your travel dream list: Paris, Barcelona, Venice, New York. Then there are places you've never considered, which was Rome for me. (Though I'm happy to travel anywhere. I'd go to the backwaters of Iowa if it meant escaping work and responsibility for a while.) So I had zero expectations of the city itself. I'm embarrassed to say I don't know a whole lot about Roman history. Something to do with aqueducts and gladiators?!

Maybe it's good to go somewhere without a preconceived idea... as I loved Rome! Loved the woman in an impeccable with suit and black stilettos, on a motorbike, her purse tucked in under the steering column. Loved the outdoor cafes that were swamped with people at any given time of day, enjoying a cold drink and one anothers company. Loved the architecture, that goes without saying, but I had to say it! The sun shone brightly, and everything was alive!

I must have walked off 5 lbs in Europe... thank goodness for Birkenstock's! Rome was no different. Just when I thought I couldn't walk another step, there were still miles to cover. We stayed in a guesthouse in the top part of the Tridente neighborhood, close to the Piazza del Popolo. Not far to walk to the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon and Piazza Navona. We passed Museo dell'Ara Pacis... which is a brand new modern museum which houses the Ara Pacis. (Side note: Ara Pacis was an altar built to celebrate the peace following Augustus's military conquests. So the Peace Arch at the Canadian/US Border is just an extension of Roman times!)

That's enough sightseeing for today... because there's still so much left for tomorrow...

June 15 - A Taste of Tuscany

It's funny... when the trip was originally planned, the idea was to spend three weeks in Tuscany. When all was said and done, and the route mapped out, we only ended up with half a day in Tuscany. How beautiful it was, though. It was about our only day of rain in two weeks... so, not ideal for scenery shots, but perfect for closeup flower shots - my favorite kind!

We took the No. 7 bus, which was conveniently located out the front of our guesthouse, 20 minutes into the foothills of Tuscany, to a town called Fiesole. The nice thing about rain... it scares off the tourists. For us who live on the West Coast, it's just another day! We happily wandered around the hilly village, admiring the views, taking in the local life, and of course, snapping away at flowers. Is there anything more Tuscan than lavender? We also got to see a few Cypress trees, which are also quintessentially Tuscan. I love their tall, slender shapes.

It started to clear up by lunch, and we got to sit and admire Florence from a distance. I did take a Holga picture of a beautiful tree from the lunch table, but I still have to have it printed. So wait for the Holga Europe Special, coming soon!