As the news from around the world keeps skewing towards negative, I am going to continue with my attempt at escapism through past travel snapshots. I have quite a few excellent shots in my portfolio that were taken in Venice (for instance here or here). And still, I count this…
This is one of my all-time favorite photographs. It featured several years ago in one of my essays on Venice and it has a prominent spot in the slider at the top of the blog’s homepage. I am standing on the stern of a Grand Canal vaporetto that is gliding…
Our November trip to Italy was relatively short, befitting a getaway, and structured around visiting a few places that we had not explored in the past. We spent time in Milan (city highlights, Last Supper), Bergamo (city highlights, fortifications), and Turin (city highlights, royal palaces). My photographic output was not…
Why did we go to Turin in the first place? If you guessed that in addition to visiting a city that we have not been to before it gave me a chance to add to my roster of visited World Heritage sites, you would be entirely correct. Over a dozen…
My writing skills being what they are, I frequently struggle with finding original or at least not overused ways to express my positive impressions of places and points of interest. But that is nothing compared to the search for ways to describe a lukewarm impression. The places that do not…
The city of Bergamo as a whole (covering both the Upper and the Lower City) has been on the tentative World Heritage list for over a dozen years. Although I have already seen a couple of inscribed places less deserving the recognition, in my humble estimation, it feels about right…
We have not set foot in Bergamo in the past and made it a defined target on this trip. It is a kind of town that invariably leaves a positive impression on any visitor without tipping the scales on the exceptional side. Città Alta, the historic core of Bergamo, is…
Milan, a renowned Mecca of shopping and fashion, is rarely considered to be a sightseeing destination. That reputation is largely deserved, as even the most ardently patriotic locals are likely to agree that their city is not at all pretty. Impressive buildings pop up here or there, some residential streets…
For me, Vernazza is the most beautiful of the five villages that comprise the incomparable Cinque Terre. It could be because Vernazza was our base when we explored the coast and, subsequently, we got acquainted with it to a larger degree than with any of the other villages. Or it…
This picture is comparatively minimalist, imperfectly composed, and not related to any specific occurrence. Rather, it offers a general recollection of tranquility that I have come to associate with the incomparable Lake Como. It should be noted that my only to-date stay on Lake Como occurred at the height of…
This may not be an especially striking picture, but I like it because it represents a bit of departure from the common type of San Gimignano photography. Most of the time people, myself customarily included, focus on the towers that give San Gimignano its unique skyline. While the towers retain…
Sometimes, small details leave sharper impressions of a place than grand vistas. This picture taken in the Lombardian city of Mantua (Mantova in Italian) is a good illustration. The location is Piazza Sordello. This spacious main historic plaza is flanked by the local Duke’s Palace, a couple of other…
Of the five villages that make up the breathtaking region of Cinque Terre on the Ligurian Coast in Italy, the two most photographed are Vernazza and Manarola. We made Vernazza our base a couple of years ago and I had ample time to build a reasonable portfolio of Vernazza images…
Venice has been a lot on my mind recently, most likely due to the extended residual envy at not having been able to join my wife and daughter on a recent visit there. My last significant stay there occurred over seven years ago, which is a sufficient length of time…
Unlike my eldest daughter – who lived in Siena for a couple of weeks on a language-immersion program and even witnessed a Palio with her own eyes – I have never spent a night in town. I’ve been to Siena on half a dozen occasions but always for an intraday visit.…
The out-of-camera version of the photograph below did not make the cut as a candidate for the recent Venice mini-gallery. But through the power of post-processing (in this case, entirely in Lightroom) it became one of the most worthy of “this would be a great print” designation. Few things give…
Two of my girls just spent almost a week reacquainting themselves with La Serenissima. Yours truly minded the homestead amid bouts of jealousy. Their tales of the trip and accompanying photos make me really want to drop everything and go immerse myself in Venice again. Oh, well… Here is a…
Vatican is recognized by UNESCO both for its spiritual value and for the artistic and architectural treasures that it possesses. You don’t have to be a Catholic to appreciate the grandeur of the incomparable Piazza San Pietro, the exquisite features of Saint Peter’s Basilica, or the magnificent collections of Vatican…
Famous gardens are often places of unparalleled enchantment. As you move through the grounds, your prevalent feeling is the desire to linger in each nook and cranny for ever and ever, to let the sculpted harmony of nature and architecture immerse you in their alternate reality of serenity and surpassing…
This serial UNESCO World Heritage site contains 14 properties, all inscribed together in 2013. We have visited a single one among them and it was in 2008, which makes it one of more borderline entries on my personal roster. The villas and gardens are recognized for the ground-breaking ways they…