My last post of my trip to Italy. *sniff* After we left Sorrento, we took the train up to Venice. We were sad to leave such a beautiful place as Sorrento, but, Venice is beauty that cannot be compared to any other. Almost half of all my taken photos on the trip were taken in Italy. St. Mark's Square alone has so much beauty that I wanted to try and capture in my camera. Luckily, our convent in Venice was a 2 minute walk from the square!
Probably the two most photographed structures in Venice: St. Mark's Basilica and the Campanile.
So, St. Mark's Square is filled with lions. Apparently (according to Rick Steves), the lion is the St. Mark's Symbol. This is the most obvious one, stop one of the two pillars at the entrance to the square from the canal.
I love this photo because it makes the pillar look taller than the Campanile, which completely not true.
Sarah and I did go inside St. Marks' Basilica. At this point we had discovered that Rick Steves had a free app we could use as we went sight-seeing. Instead of paying four a tour, like we did at the Vatican, we just used our phones. If you ever travel to Europe--get this app (Called Rick Steves Audio Europe)!
Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside, but I captured the following photos from the front balcony of the basilica:
The famous horses of St. Mark's. There are four gigantic horses on the front balcony of the basilica, but they are not the real ones. The "real" (original) horses are inside on display in the museum, for conservation purposes.
The two pillars I mentioned earlier. See that line that snakes through the photo? That is the link to get into St. Mark's Basilica. Yeah, it was that long before it even opened!
From the balcony, we had a great view of the pillars and architecture of the Doge's Palace. I spent a lot of time photographing it.
Oh, the pink pillars. I loved these--they made the photographer inside me tingle with excitement. Patterns in a photo is a strong compositional aspect, but interrupted patterns are an even stronger compositional aspect in a photo.....but I digress. They were so pretty!
These are only two photos, but I think took somewhere between 40 and 50, all using different settings and compositions.
Another thing I loved about Venice was the public transportation. In every other city on the world, that means buses, metros, and trains. In Venice it means boats! It was so much fun to just ride the public transportation boats and take pictures. All the architecture is so picturesque, the photo opportunities are endless!
This is the underside of the Constitution Bridge (Ponte della Constituzione). I loved that it was red.
Just to give you a visual--this is a typical Vaporetto (what we would call a city bus elsewhere). Looks crowded, right? Not even close--we were often on even more crowded boats than this. You were lucky if were able to get a seat up front--ideal place to sit and see.
It's true gondolas are everywhere on the canals, but it was cool to see a fleet of them making their way down the Grand Canal.
Again, but this time in black and white. The colors in the buildings behind them were so pale, it made sense to go with the B&W.
LOVED the gondolas!
Confession: I love capturing shots like these. I always get a kick out of getting a picture of the scene in focus on someone's phone with the same scene in the background, but blurry. I guess it's kind of like a picture in a picture made easy.
We spent a day visiting a couple of the nearby islands Murano and Burano. Burano is well-known for their lace and super-awesome brightly colored houses! If it had not been so swelteringly hot the day we went, I would have stayed there ALL day.
Can you see the checkerboard effect?
And finally--St. Mark's Square at night.
At night, the cafes in the square provide live music. There were four different groups that played in the square. Sarah and I had dinner at the café we thought had the best musicians :) They were great! Other musicians in the area.....not so much. We ran away from one violinist because he couldn't fix his intonation! ahhh!
Possibly my absolute favorite photos of Venice. Gotta love the B&W.
Before heading home, we finished our trip with a few days in Verona. I was often asked why Verona and not Florence. Here is the answer:
Sarah and I went to Verona's famous Opera Festival. Every few days, and Opera is performed in a roman arena. It didn't start until 9pm (2100) so that it would be dark for the performance. We went to see Aida, and I am so glad we did. Aida is such a big production, and it was amazing to see it performed in an arena where they actually used the steps behind them throughout the performance.
Sarah was very excited--as was I. If you notice--everyone is sitting on stone steps. It would cost us more than double the tickets we bought to actually get to sit in chairs. So we just rented a couple of seat cushions and stretched liberally in between scenes and acts.
The biggest tourist attraction in Verona is based on the fictional character Juliet (as in Romeo and Juliet). It was (in my opinion) decidedly underwhelming to see her balcony. I was more intrigued by the graffiti-ed sign. Apparently it is a tradition for lovers to write on the sign and wall in the entrance to the balcony.
Just as in New Orleans (See that post here!), I was fascinated with a wrought iron fence outside the graves of Scaliger family (they were a big deal in Verona's history).
This photo was fun to capture. I happened to see this reflection as we were walking by, and got really excited. Sarah said it was really funny to watch me because there other people around me with their cameras pointing up, and I was the only one pointing down. Another photographer did catch on to what I was doing and joined me. I think that made me look less crazy!
The view from the Ponte Pietra. Our last night in Verona. :'(
As before, I have way more photos than the ones featured here. Click the links below if you want to see all of the ones from Venice and Verona.
If you have been following me as I relive my Italian experiences, thank you. It has been such a joy for me to share my photos with you. All of the photos in the galleries are free to download and enjoy! If anyone asks where you got them, just tell you know this super-cool photographer who had a fantastic opportunity to travel Italy, and give 'em my name :)
No comments:
Post a Comment