Photos - Venice (1)

Venice is, of course, a photographer's Mecca.  There are actually too many things to photograph and all of the best ones have been done by people who can afford to spend hours getting the best conditions etc.  I did take a few though but mainly for self interest.

 The Grand Canal taken from the Ponte di Rialto

 Obligatory shot of the Ponte di Rialto.  It is always crowded with turisti.

 A carving in a church I visited (Basilica dei Frari).

 A clock tower with single-handed clock.

 Fresco detail on Basilica di San Marco

Turisti waiting to enter the Basilica di San Marco.

Photos - Levico Terme, Trento

The scenery around Levico Terme and Trento is quite spectacular being in the Italian Tyrol region.

 View looking north-east from Levico Terme

 View looking north-eastish from our hotel window in Trento

View looking south-eastish from our hotel window in Trento

 

Photos - Giro d'Italia

After Rimini we headed north for Trento where we had planned to catch part of a stage of the Giro d'Italia in the nearby town of Levico Terme.  We got there with maybe an hour to spare and found a position on the cobbled hill through the town where we could catch the action as they came through.

 The leaders coming up the hill.  Garth's arm in the foreground ;-)

 Looking up the hill after the leading bunch went through.

 I think this was the main peloton following the leading group.

 Getting towards some of the stragglers now.

The front of the last group on the road.  We had crossed to the other side as we didn't know that there were still more to come.

Photos - after Tuscany (1)

Leaving Montieri in Tuscany we headed across to the Adriatic coast by way fo Siena, Arezzo, and Sansepolcro after which we crossed the Apennines eventually ending up at Pesaro before heading north to Rimini for our overnight.  We had seen many wildflowers along the way and stopped at a layby in the mountains to take this shot.

 Wild poppies at the side of the road on the way to the east coast.

When we got to Rimini we found a hotel at the 'beach front' and our window looked out due east over the Adriatic.  As you can see a well made promenade with bike path on the far side and then, separating the hoi polloi from the beach - concessions.  No doubt some Italian politicians made lots of money in coming up with this idea.  Not even the Gold Coast is this gauche!

 Looking slightly north of east over the Adriatic

 Due east - directly across from our hotel.  Lovely bike path though.

 Looking south-east - concessions as far as you can see.

South-south-east - all hotels and concessions.  Like the Gold Coast but worse.

Fortunately the holiday season had not begun otherwise the place would be unbearable.

Photos - Lucca and Pisa

After touring south-central Tuscany we took a day to drive north to Lucca and afterwards Pisa.  A few photos from Lucca where we spent quite a bit of time wandering about and soaking up the sights.

Two shots of Lucca Cathedral

Of course, no visit to Italy would be complete without viewing Pisa's leaning tower 'up close and personal.

 Most people seem to have photos of themselves trying to hold up the tower.  I thought I would have one of me trying to push it over.  Very difficult to get the perspective right though.

 Looking staight up the tower from near its base.

 Next to the famous tower is the Pisa Cathedral.  This has also suffered from the ground underneath it collapsing and the results can be seen by comparing the tops of the arches at the far left with those at the right.  It looks as though they discovered this while it was still being built.

 And the leaning tower again from the opposite side which is where most of the tourists (and there are many) view it from.  

Strangely (or maybe not) Pisa is not the only Italian city with a leaning tower.  It could be, of course, that the only plans they had was for towers that lean ;-)

Photos - Florence, Tuscany, etc

One of my last pictures from Florence was this one of the main door of the Chiesa di Santa Trinita (Church of the Holy Trinity).  It was particularly interesting because of the carving, and also for the carving of the Medici coat of arms.

 Main door of the Chiesa di Santa Spirita.  The Medici coat of arms is on both of the middle panels.

After meeting up with Garth and leaving Florence we went to the Maremma region in southern Tuscany where we did a few day trips.  On first such trip we did a south-central Tuscany loop and along the way I took a couple of pictures.

Looking out over the Bay of Follonica towards the island of Elba on the horizon.

We visited Pitigliano which is a fortified hilltop town with links back to the Etruscans.

Pitigliano outer as seen by looking back over the town wall.  Etruscan caves are down in the valley below.

Photos - Cycling in Chianti

Only a couple of photos taken on my one day cycle tour in Chianti.  The first is a view from Qurici looking back across to the Castella de Poppiano where we started and ended the tour.

 Looking across to the Castella de Poppiano where the bike tour started.

Same(ish) view but with YT in the foreground to prove I was there.

Photos - Florence

The day after my bus tour I took a walk around and came into Giardini di Boboli which lies behind the Pitti Palace.  It was a very pleasant Sunday with lots of people taking the air so I sat for a while underneath a tree and watched the world go by.  These are a few pictures I took in the gardens and as I was leaving them.

 Quiet pathways on the walk down into the gardens.

 I couldn't help taking this one.  There was a mother duck with her ducklings swimming around so I waited until they got into a near perfect position for Neptune to harpoon them (click for larger image).

 Neptunes fountain again but from behind looking out over the Palazzo Pitti and Florence in the background.

 The gated entrance to another part of the gardens.

One of the old city wall gates at the southern entrance to the gardens.

Photos - Monteriggioni

On the Chianti - San Gimigniano - Siena bus tour, the last place that we stopped at was the walled medieval town of Monteriggioni which has survived remarkably intact.  The bus dropped us in the car park at the bottom of the hill and we walked up into the town through the main gate and had a stroll around for a while.  These photos show some of the interesting (to me) parts of the town, mostly from the inside.

As a tourist attraction, they have people reciting parts of Dante's Divine Comedy in the streets as he references the town in it.  There was also a choral acapella group singing in one of the back lanes.

 The tower above the main (south) gate.  Some restoration work is being done on the wall.

 The Monteriggioni church and bell-tower in the background.

 The north gate tower.

 The north gate and tower

 View of the Monteriggioni walls from just outside the south gate.

View south over the Chianti countryside from just outside the south gate.

Photos - Siena (2)

I spent some time looking around inside Siena Cathedral (Duomo) and took a few photos.  The Siennese started a project to extend the cathedral in the early 14th century and this would have doubled the size of the already large cathedral.  The project was stopped by the Black Death and the work was never continued.  The first picture shows the 'new' uncompleted nave.

 The top of the front facade of the cathedral

 The front facade of the cathedral

The library had 3D (trompe l'oeil) frescoes all around

 Another frescoe

 The library ceiling

 Frescoes back towards the door end of the library.  Don't know what the three naked hussies in the statue were supposed to be doing.  Its actually a statue of The Three Graces - a Roman copy of the Greek original.

The other side of the front wall of the library.

Photos - Siena (1)

These are photos taken on my Chianti - San Gimigniano - Siena - Monteriggioni.  This is the first set from Siena and I was more interested in the architecture than anything else.  Siena and Florence were big rivals and tended to try to outdo each other in just about everything.

 This was in a piazza near the start of our Siena tour.  The guys with the flags were getting ready to do some flag waving/tossing.

 The drummers accompanying the Flag wavers.  The outfits represent the city ward they are representing.  There are seventeen city wards.

 The flag wavers in action.

 View of the Siena Duomo.

 One of the little side piazzas.  I was more interested in the buildings than in the bloke on the pedestal.

 Building facade.

 Little statues of the she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus are all over the place.  Again, I was more interested in the building behind.

 Church facade.

 Interesting window treatment.

 Extravagantly adorned building frontage with some excellent ceiling treatment showing.

The tower and frontage of the civic building which also houses the Museo Civico.  A lot of the clocks one sees in old buildings like this do not have minute hands because they were unimportant at the time the clocks were installed.  It was enough to know the hour of the day and be able to guess at the size of the interval to the next/previous hour.  This building stands on one side of the Piazza del Campo which is where the Palio (horse race) is run twice a year.