Fall Leaves!

Fall is my second favorite season because it always has these two perfect weeks when the sky is always blue and the leaves are so vibrant as they get ready to drop to the ground. Usually fall for me begins by the end of September but here in Florence it seemed to take forever to get there (at least look like the fall I enjoy the most). But finally over break the sky was blue and the leaves were their vibrant yellows and golds and I began snapping away. This picture weas taken at the Boboli Gardens, which are part of the Piti Palace in Florence. (I have more to upload, but my internet is being very very very slow).

Il Duomo

This semester I am takeing two classes about renaissance art and architecture, both talk about the cupola of the Florence Cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore). Because the cupola was the last thing finished it is the only aspect of the duomo we study, but I find the facade amazing. I already talked about my first impression of the Duomo, so now I am posting some pictures I recently took of the facade, which also include some close up details.

A, B, C, it’s easy as 1, 2, 3

So I’m still working on my alphabet, and its slowly (very slowly) still coming together and here I’m focussing on the beginning. I currently have two good “A”s and two good “C”’s but I’m missing any good “B”.

The first “A” was taken in my yard and the second is the Eiffel Tower “A” that I have wanted to have since I began this project.

The first “C” is from some woodwork in my house and the second “C” is from the garden of the people who live across the street.

And if you have any ideas for “B”s (or any other letter) feel free to let me know.

Gold…

In my pervious post, I commented on how I had never seen so much gold in a building, and that still stands true. However, the Orvieto Duomo facade runs a close second. The facade is covered in gold mosaics. I picked the two pictures below because I like how I framed the facade. The top one, I have framed it with two buildings that line the street that runs to the entrance. The second one I have framed the upper corner with the blue sky to create a nice contrast.

 

Venice

I’m in Italy, and there is really only one city I know I have no choice but to visit: Venice. I mean it’s slowly disappearing right… So when my friend suggested it for Fall Break, I was right on board, although it was going to be at the end and it was going to be rushed. Just as long as I went, I knew I would be satisfied. Venice was just as amazing as the pictures are. I kept thinking to myself “i’m really in Venice!” Of course we went to Palazzo San Marco (right after the Murano Glass factory, where I bought a gorgeous glass blue rose) were saw the San Marco Basilica (I had never seen so much gold on a ceiling before, and I’ve been to Versailles) and the Doge’s Palace. After that we went on a gondola ride and saw the rest of the city.

During my day and a half there (we weren’t in a hotel on the main island either) I took a ton of pictures, but they were all with my small camera and I was mainly taking pictures to remember the city by and not be artsy. However I found two of the city that I really liked. One is of the San Marco Basilica and the other is of the Doge’s Palace.

Silence all Around

There are two things that seem to always help me think: 1) music and 2) being a place with fresh air and little noise. One of the places that I seem to always find these qualities are in cemeteries. When I’m in a cemetary I always find myself thinking about how pretty this grave marker looks or how much time and effort must have gone into craving the marble. I walk through them like a museum and then I take out my cameras and start shooting.

While in Paris, my friend, Christine, and I decided we wanted to go to Pere Lachaise to visits some different people’s graves (David, Chopin, Oscar Wilde, and of course Jim Morrison). Like usually my D 40 came out and I took tons of pictures approaching different grave markers from many different angles. Below I am including some of the pictures I took . (I’ve done a pervious post with a similar subject matter when I first began blogging.)

 

 

Not such Disney Movie-esq

I was flipping through the 200+ pictures of my second trip to Paris looking for my pictures I took with my D 40 at Pere Lachaise when I found this picture of the Notre Dame Cathedral. This is one of my favorite pictures I took on this trip because of the way the lighting turned out. The lighting does not look artificial or the picture has not become a lighter color due to the camera’s suggestion of aperture and shutter speed. The pictures feels like you are actually standing at near the entrance of the central nave looking down. There is also this eerie feel because it is still dark and the air looks still, very unlike the depiction of the Cathedral in the Disney movie “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.”  (I love my Disney movies so I had to mention it.)

The 100th Post

I’m not really known for staying with things a long time (for example with 3 and a half semesters left I just dropped my econ minor). Those of you that have been following might have noticed that there are constantly long breaks of posting for me. However I return to post eventually. When I noticed that I was in the 90’s of number of posts in the fall during my first few weeks in Italy I realized that I can have that 100th post be a photograph from my travels so I was determined to reach that 100th post. And so here it is, my 100th post!

In honor of my 100th post, I’m including pictures that I took of the Eiffel Tower during my second trip this semester to Paris. (My cousin is studying this semester in Parigi (Paris) and I have taken advantage of her apartment.) During my second trip, I was traveling with a close friend from Bates and really wanted to take her to see the Eiffel Tower at night. My cousin and I had heard this rumor that there was a light show at night in honor of the Eiffel Tower’s 120th birthday but we thought it was just the hourly flashing of white lights. So we took my friend to the tower for her to see the hourly flashing, watched it and took tons of pictures. Then we heard music and the side opposite of us was lighting up in time with the music. We ran under the tower and watched at the tower lit up with multi colored lights and continued to take pictures (It reminded us of the rainbow road course from Mario Court). It couldn’t have been more magical or perfect for our last night in Paris!

Getting Caught Up

I’ve been m.i.a. again but this time with reason. I have not stopped takeing pictures but have really just been getting caught up in this semester. It’s hard enough just to fit work in between travels around Europe or fun days around Florence. So far this semester I have been to Sorrento, Capri, Positono, Pompeii, Pienza (twice), Siena, Arezzo, Pisa, Paris (Twice), Bologna, Venice, Perugia, and Orvieto. I also have trips to Interlaken (Switzerland), Rome, and Torino lined up. I’m going to try to post more frequently but if not, I will do a wave of posts when I am back in the states and looking through my pictures thinking about all the fun times I have had.

In honor of all my recent traveling (mainly hours spent on a train) I am posting a picture I took of the sunset on the way back from Perugia (we went for a chocolate festival for a day). I like it because of the way the backlight greenery has blurred to create a cool effect with the sunset in the back of it.

This is for real!

The one country in Europe that I have always wanted to go to (think mainly because of the food) was to visit Italy. I’ve been it England, Amsterdam, Paris, and Spain (twice) but not Italy. Because Italy had always been my frist choice of place to go in Europe, it was my obvious choice for place to study for a semester abroad. So this desire to go to Italy as made me say this to myself once again “I’m in Italy…WOW!” I truly can’t believe I’m here, let alone studying here. Someone needs to pinch me so I know this is real.

While in Italy I am going to take as much advantage as I can of the ability to travel during out three day weekends. My first extended trip (i.e. not a day trip) was with my friend Jenny to the Amalfi Coast where we spent time in Capri, Sorrento, Posotano (sp?), and Pompei. The cities were all pretty but Pompei was unbelievable solely because of what it is. I had studied the discovery of Pompei in my art history classes looking at how it influenced art during the Neoclassical, Rococo and Romanticism Periods, and it was therefore one of the places I had to go visit. So as I walked through the ruins of Pompei, I had to keep telling myself what I have been telling myself since I have been here “I can’t believe I’m here” and “this is for real.” The following pictures are come Pompei.