One more post of Venice after this one. It’s been a little over a month now since the trip. This post is actually a combo of two days. Essentially, at this point in the trip, I had reached the limits of my mental capacity for information and constant exploration. But that didn’t mean I didn’t stop appreciating the place.
After leaving Florence for Venice, a quick stop was made in Padua. It’s most famous for the Arena Chapel frescoes by Giotto. I saw them, but no pictures were allowed. Most of the post is just more street life. It was a strange city, it felt more spread out and empty than other stops we made. A quiet town really.
This second bit is the other half of Florence. It’s essentially just one long day of walking through the city. Not too much more (really?) after this post (transit to Venice comes next).
These are the first few days from Florence. The average shoot/keep ratio started to drop a bit. Compared with Rome, Florence wasn’t as picture ready. Plenty of street life for sure, but I was still trying to get comfortable with the surroundings. I tend to be a shy shooter as it is. Regardless, I did what I could.
The eighth day of the trip, we departed Rome by bus to Florence. Before we arrived, we took some side trips to a couple of other Tuscan towns: Pienza, in the heart of the iconic countryside, and Siena, an historic medieval town.
I’m playing a bit of catch up and posting the rest of the images from Rome. Most of it consists of more wanderings through the streets, although on day 6, I went to Hadrian’s Villa and Villa d’Este.
A big post today. We went to the Vatican, saw the Sistine Chapel, climbed St. Peter’s dome, and traversed yet more Roman streets. A good day, overall.
It looked as if the third day in Rome would be spoiled by rain. Fortunately it held off for the most part, although the light certainly wasn’t as nice as I would’ve liked it. And the skies did end up opening, right as I was walking back to the hotel. I got drenched, but my D700 held up fine – the weather sealing is no joke, that much is certain.
The second day in Rome. It happened to be a sort of Italian independence day, and we went to the area that qualified as the Roman capitol – the forums, Colosseum, and Campidoglio.
So here starts my trip to Italy. I went as a part of a college program, and was taking an art history course along with doing the whole photo bit. I was able to see more or less every important Renaissance work in person, along with learn about the context behind it all. A really enlightening and wonderful trip overall. The first city was Rome, where I spent a total of 6 days–this is just the travel, arrival, and first full day part of it.
