Historic center of Urbino is recognized on UNESCO list for its homogeneous Renaissance appearance and architecture blended into original medieval structure. It is a town that is very easy on the eyes – and moderately challenging to navigate due to its hilly topography. Here is the view of the town…
The UNESCO World Heritage site in Modena is the main historic square, with major architectural masterpieces surrounding it. Here is a fragment of two named ones, the exquisite – and leaning (you will have to trust me on this) – Torre Civica and the Cathedral. Piazza Grande, on…
The incredibly picturesque area of Cinque Terre, along with Portovenere and a trio of islands to the immediate south, are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list for their historic and cultural value, to say nothing of their beauty. For nearly a millennium, the rugged and mountainous Ligurian coast made…
The towns of Mantua (Mantova in Italian) and Sabbioneta are paired into a single World Heritage site on the basis of representing two different facets of Renaissance city planning: the former an example of an existing city rebuilt and renewed, the latter a completely new town built according to the…
Verona is enshrined on the UNESCO list as the whole city, with a large number of buildings and monuments mentioned in the inscription. It was the first stop on our recent sojourn. The heart of the city is lively Piazza delle Erbe. It hosted a smaller version of the market…
Our summer trip to Italy finished in Milan, where we spent a single afternoon and night ahead of the flight back to the US. The Gothic cathedral of Milan is a must-see sight. And here is a perspective in the opposite direction, with an unusual modern building juxtaposing…
Our last full day in Tuscany was spent on driving through the Chianti Country and degustazione di vino. Here are a few random shots.
On our last visit to Siena, my new-found focus on photography paid off in that I finally ended up with superior material to do justice to the city, something that was beyond my reach when I made this entry about a year ago in my “favorite sights” series. For instance,…
Volterra resides on the second tier of Tuscan sights hierarchy. It boasts an Etruscan archeological site and museum that the other locales do not have, but lacks the knockout punch of an attraction such as the leaning tower of Pisa or the many towers of San Gimignano. Nonetheless, it is…
Continuing with the theme of revisiting some of the best entries in “my favorite sights” series that I ran on the blog in the past, here are a few additional shots of San Gimignano – one of the all-time favorite stops on our travels that we certainly could not bypass…
Florence entry in the erstwhile series was one of the best ones. I always managed to come away from visits to Florence with good photographic material. As a result, on our recent day in the birthplace of Renaissance, quite a few of my shots were of sights I already photographed…
Renting a motorboat for a few hours of jetting around the lake is the absolute must for any stay on Como. You simply do not get to see many of the most striking sights when you stay on shore. And even for villas that are open for public visits, you…
There are plenty of grand villas and gardens to be visited around Lake Como. Villa Carlotta is among the must-visit destinations. The mansion itself is fairly impressive and holds a reasonable collection of art, but it is the botanic garden that is the main attraction. Built into the steep mountain…
When you visit Lake Como, you would be well advised not to stay in just one place. You have to move around, to visit different lakeside villages, to take in as many breathtaking views as possible. The lake is one endless sequence of picturesque spots. Here is a small sampling.…
During our stay on Lake Como, we rented a townhouse in Sala Comacina. The tiny village squeezes itself in the space between the shore and the main road, facing off to the only island that graces the lake. Not a destination in itself, Sala Comacina is significantly quieter than nearby…
Ok, I admit, I am a bit obsessive. Now that I started to pay attention to how many World Heritage sites I’ve visited, I am looking for opportunities to increase my tally. Actually, in Tuscany, I have already been – more than once in practically all cases – to most…
Despite all of the attempts the tour-books made to convince me that there is plenty to do and see in Pisa beyond its singular top sight, it remains a one-location city for me after several visits. The fantastic Piazza del Duomo (also colloquially known as Piazza dei Miracoli), the home…
A follow-up photo-essay from more recent trip can be found here. Many tour-books call San Gimignano “Manhattan of Tuscany”, on account of a dozen or so surviving medieval towers that form a veritable skyscraper cluster. The towers attract huge crowds of tourists to the town whose ancient core remains attractive…
A follow-up photo-essay from more recent trip can be found here. It defies explanation, but on my half a dozen visits to Siena I never managed a good photographic shot of its famous main square, Piazza del Campo. I have plenty of shots taken on the square, but none that…
A follow-up photo-essay from more recent trip can be found here. Venice is among the best-photographed cities in our archives, and deservedly so. It is unique, beautiful and utterly amazing. The view from Ponte dell’Accademia towards the church of Santa Maria della Salute and the mouth of the Grand Canal…