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Trevi Fountain

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I took a lot of photos on the recent Italy trip. As time allows I will be posting select images here to the blog. This is a three shot HDR of The Trevi Fountain in Rome, Italy. The lack of crowds is due to the fact that we got there relatively early in the morning.

Italy 2012 – Wrapping It Up

On our last day in Rome (which would be our last day in Italy) we woke up early and took a cab to St. Peter’s Square to tour the basilica. Regardless of your religious views (or lack of them), this place is something to see in person. Getting there early is the key. No long lines and the crowds were minimal. We had plenty of room to move around and we could take our time. Once again, the fisheye lens was the lens for the shoot. Even with such a wide angle, it’s hard to convey how massive the church interior is.

From St. Peter’s it’s a short walk to Castel Sant’Angelo.

We didn’t go inside. We opted to take advantage of the continued good weather and spent the rest of the day relaxing and just walking around the city.

Italy was fantastic. There were times I didn’t think this trip was going to work and feared it might end in disaster. Instead, it turned in to one of the most fantastic trips we have ever been on. The food, the wine, the architecture and the people all combined for a wonderful experience. We may never go back to Venice, but Rome and Florence are definitely in the running for a re-visit some day.

On top of all that, I think my photography went up another notch. At the time I was shooting I didn’t think it was going that well, but in reviewing what I came away with I have to say it is some of my best work. There will be more to show as time allows.

Thanks to everyone who followed along on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and this blog. It was fun sharing the trip with so many people.

Rome – Day 4 – Vatican Museum

After our audience with The Pope we headed over to the Vatican Museum. This was around 12:30 and the crowds were out in force. We had acquired our ticket vouchers online and, as it turned out, we pretty much walked right in.

You have to be careful when visiting the Vatican Museum. There are tons of people trying to convince you to buy a tour and skip the line. This may be a good idea if you don’t have your voucher already in hand, but is a total scam if you do.

Also, this area is crawling with gypsies. I saw a guy nearly get pickpocketed in this area our last visit in 2005. They’re good at what they do, but this one fumbled the pass when she was handing the wallet off to one of her accomplices.

The Vatican Museum is crowded and hectic. We wanted to see the Sistine Chapel and I specifically wanted to see the spiral staircase.

There’s a lot of really fantastic art to see. And some areas are not too crowded.

But the trek to the chapel is where it starts to get bad. It is literally a cattle call.. A throng of humanity shuffling down a long and ever shrinking corridor until you reach the chapel.

Eventually you do end up in the chapel.

And sadly, there are no photos allowed in the chapel.

At this point we were pretty beat and the crowds were just too much so we made our way to the exit. Even this was a long walk. But we did end up at the magnificent spiral staircase which was something I *really* wanted to see and photograph.

We headed back to the hotel to get some lunch and relax for a bit. The rest of the day would be pretty casual as we’re winding down to come home.

Rome – Day 4 – The Pope

As a lapsed catholic, the significance of Rome and Vatican City is not lost on me. After all, it is the very heart of the Roman Catholic Church. But oddly, it is Cynthia who seems to have the most interest in seeing the Pope when travelling to Italy. And she is not even remotely Catholic.

The last time we were there we attended the Papal Blessing on a Sunday. The Sunday blessing features The Pope appearing in a window of the Apostolic Palace and speaking to the crowds that gather in St. Peter’s Square. Thousands gather to receive his blessing, or simply gawk.

This visit we were not going to be in Rome in time to attend the Sunday blessing, but we were going to be there on a Wednesday. And, as it happens, Wednesday is the day the Pope conducts his Papal Audience where he actually comes down to conduct a service.

Depending on variables I am not certain about, the audience can either be right in St. Peter’s Square in front of the basilica or they hold the event indoors at the Paul VI Audience Hall.

Cynthia expressed a strong interest in attending and I thought it would be a good opportunity to grab some interesting photos.

Prior to our departure I went online and requested tickets for seats at the event. To do this you simply go to the Web site of The Church of Santa Susanna and fill out a simple form. A week or so prior to your selected date you will be notified if you have been granted tickets.

About two weeks before our departure I received an email confirming our tickets for May 2 at the Paul VI Audience Hall.

There were two disappointments in this email. The first was that the audience would be at the Paul VI Audience Hall so no dramatic outdoor shots. The second was the date. We would not be in Rome on May 2. We would be there on May 9.

Unfortunately I did not realize there was a discrepancy in the date until AFTER I emailed Cynthia with the good, but inaccurate news.

I went back to the Web site and resubmitted my request. We received another confirmation right before we left for Italy. This time with the correct date and confirmation that this audience would, indeed, be in front of the basilica. w00t!

The email confirmation instructed us to go to Santa Susanna during some set times to pick up our tickets. As it turned out, Santa Susanna was only a few blocks from our hotel so finding it and getting there was a total breeze.

When we went to pick up our tickets the priest who met with us asked me what parish I attended. I figured I would be asked something like this and happily told him I was a member of Mt. Carmel. Which is technically true. At least when I was younger. I have attended mass in over 3 decades. As it turns out, the priest knew Mt. Carmel and used to live in Houston. I was quickly put in to a position where I had to admit I was a very, very lapsed Catholic. He smiled and said perhaps our visit would change that.

We got our tickets and made the suggested donation and skedaddled out of there before I was asked anymore questions.

On the day of the audience we got up early and had breakfast and then caught a cab to St. Peter’s Square. The audience was scheduled for 10:30 am and it was suggested we get there early if we wanted good seats. We got there around 8:00 and were able to get about 5th or 6th row. Not too shabby.

The weather was sunny and the skies were blue. And as the time approached for the Pope to appear the crowds in St. Peter’s grew and grew. It was definitely a photo opportunity deluxe.

The wait time went quickly enough and then the big moment arrived. The Pope entered the square

I could see his head and shoulders gliding effortlessly above the crowd. At one point I suggested he was coming in on a Segway to the guilty laughter of those around us. But no, he was not on a Segway, he was on the Mercedes “Pope-Mobile”

I was happy to have brought the 70-200mm lens. Even though we were in a good seat, it was still nice to have the reach

After riding around the square and greeting everyone he eventually settled in to his seat at the top of his podium and addressed the crowd.

It was quite a spectacle. I don’t think I will be going back to mass anytime soon, but it was kind of special and I am glad to have witnessed something like this in person.

Rome – Day 3

Day three in Rome dawned with sunshine and blue skies blazing! We got up, got dressed and had our breakfast before heading out to take a walk around this magnificent city.

We walked from the hotel to Trevi Fountain which was a little less than a mile away. I will tell you this, the key to seeing any of the main sites in Rome is to go early. The fountain had a smattering of tourists, but it was not jammed up and crowded as it would be later in the day.

The custom is to toss a coin in to the fountain with the promise that if you do so, you will one day return. We did this in 2005 so I can vouch for the effectiveness 🙂

From the Trevi it was a short walk to The Pantheon

Again, early arrival meant fewer crowds. We were dodging some tour groups, but it was not so bad…yet.

I had brought my fisheye along for this excursion as I thought it might be fun to take some shots inside the Pantheon using this lens. The Pantheon is pretty much a big dome and I figured the circular nature of the architecture would lend itself well to this style of phptography.

I took a few shots and created some HDR multi-exposures

As I was shooting it occurred to me that this would be a great opportunity for one of my “Camera On The Floor” shots. I like to do this in dark interiors. What I do is find a spot on the floor and set the timer on my camera and place the camera face up to the ceiling and let it take the shot. The results can be rather dramatic. Although I could not get to the center of the Pantheon as they had it roped off, I was able to get this.

From The Pantheon we walked to the Piazza Navona.

From there it was a short walk to Campo de’ Fiori to see the statue of Giordano Bruno who was Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician and astronomer. His cosmological theories went beyond the Copernican model in proposing that the Sun was essentially a star, and moreover, that the universe contained an infinite number of inhabited worlds populated by other intelligent beings.

Giordano Bruno was a heretic who was burned at the stake by civil authorities in 1600 after the Roman Inquisition found him guilty of heresy for his pantheism.

At this point we have walked several miles, but were still feeling strong and enthusiastic so we trekked to the river to find our way to the Bocca della Verità or “Truth Mouth” located in the portico of the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin.

Legend has it that if you place your hand in the mouth of this statue and you tell a lie, the statue will bite your hand off. Cynthia and I each took our turn placing our hand in the mouth while the other asked if we loved them. I am happy to report we still have both our hands.

At this point we were getting a little tired and knew we had a bit of a hike to get back to the hotel where we could rest and recuperate. We could see Altare della Patria looming over us.

We knew that if we headed toward that monument path would lead us to Trajan’s Column and then back to our hotel.

But before that we made a detour over to The Colosseum to see The Arch of Constantine before hiking the main road back to the hotel.

All in all, we walked a good 5-6 miles by my reckoning. Google Maps places it at 5.7 miles, but does not take in to consideration the few wrong turns and the less than direct route we took to each location.

Rome – Day 2

Our second day in Rome began with rain. But the weather reports indicated it would clear by the middle of the day so we were hopeful we’d get some sightseeing in.

Our hotel includes a free American style breakfast buffet so we were able to tank up on scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages and abundant coffee and other breakfast treats. This is a huge plus for us as we do a lot of walking on our trips and a good breakfast really helps.

We had our breakfast and headed off to see some sites. The rain was on and off. Mostly off, but cloudy and threatening.

We walked to Trajan’s Column, The Colosseum. The Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.

Later in the day the sun came out in ernest and we repeated a few sites to see them again in better light.

All in all, a very good day which ended in good food and wine.

Florence – Wrapping It Up

Florence just gets better and better. On our second to last day we headed out for Boboli Gardens. The weather was again very good, if a little overcast. But we didn’t mind.

The sprawling gardens afforded a few good photos but mostly it was just nice to be out and walking around in such a magnificent garden.

This took up the bulk of our morning and after we had lunch we went back to the hotel room where I caught up on some rest and did a little photo editing while Cynthia made an excursion to the botanical gardens which didn’t really hold much interest for me.

We ended the day as we typically do while we’re in Italy…having dinner with a bottle of Italian red wine.

For our final day we took it pretty easy. We’re both rather tired at this point and we know we have all of Rome laying in wait.

We wandered the city and just took in the sites.

One thing you will notice in Italy are the gypsies and the beggars. We avoided them fairly successfully, but this one hit below the belt. He was definitley raking in the euros.

For our last evening we strolled down to Arno River and watched the sun set on the Ponte Vecchio. As the sun was going down I looked behind me and noticed that a rainbow was falling directly on Basilica di San Miniato al Monte, the church that was founded in 1018 that we visited the other day.

A fitting end to a wonderful visit to Florence.

We had dinner and called it an early evening so we could pack and prepare for our journey to Rome the next day.

Florence – Day 3

We received our confirmation for our reservations to go see Michelangelo’s David at the Accademia Gallery. Our appointment was at 10:15 am so we got up and had some breakfast and headed over to see Michelangelo’s most famous sculpture.

No camers were allowed so we just walked the gallery and took it all in. Besides the David there are many other works of art in the gallery and it was a pleasant visit.

Bolstered by yesterday’s success and the continuing good weather we decided to spend the afternoon in Pisa.

We walked to the train station and bought tickets and within a few minutes we were on our way.

It’s only about an hour’s train ride from Florence and when you get to Pisa it’s only a 15 minute walk to the tower.

It was a gorgeous day and the tower looked great having recently been restored and all the scaffolding removed.

Aside from the tower and the other two buildings there’s really not much to see in Pisa. We took some photos, had some lunch, enjoyed the weather and made our way back to Florence.

After going back to the hotel and resting a bit we went out to dinner and had a delicious meal and a bottle of wine.

Florence is turning out to be the best part of the trip so far.