Roaring...

I caught our cat Deva yawning the other day, proudly showing off her missing tooth. I remain intrigued by the incredibly shallow depth of field attainable with the 50mm f1.4 lens. I tried but missed getting her eyes into sharp focus here but the effect is still kind of interesting. 

I've read at times that you should never leave anything in the foreground out of focus but like most rules, I think that one is demonstrably bogus.

Brrrr...

The December mornings are stark indeed. No real snow on the ground to "warm things up" so the branches and stray leaves are spiked with morning frost.

November Rugosa...

November in Vermont is monochrome. It is a stark follow up to our colorful summer season. One of the last bits of foliage to succumb to our black and white winter season is our rugosa rose leaves which briefly flare up from their summer green.

So long Venice...

In Venice, you take a water bus to the airport. This is where the "bus" dropped us at Marco Polo airport.

Rialto View...

Here is a view from the Rialto Bridge in Venice of commerce and pleasure boating along the Grand Canal.

We're nearing the end of the journey through Italy. Thanks for bearing with me!

The Pescheria near the Rialto Bridge in Venice

 

Venetian Night...

As we walked back through the night from St. Mark's Square to our hotel, we crossed several small canals such as the one below. 

Cruise ships in Venice...

The cruise ship phenomenon in Venice is somewhat unfortunate. There is a tide of people sweeping into the heart of the city in the morning and a flow back to the giant ship in the afternoon.

Venetian Traffic...

Gondolas of Venice...

St. Marks Square

A shot of St. Mark's square in Venice from the #1 water bus.

Jack! You home?

I've fallen down on regular blog updates but will restart with this years crop. We had such a blast carving this year!

Gondoliers...

Later in the day, we wandered down towards the touristy side of town near the Rialto Bridge. The day was improving but remained a bit unkind. This did not seem to dampen the enthusiasm folks had for riding around in funky boats powered by a man (during the whole trip we saw only one woman gondolier and she was clearly in training - brave woman!) using a single oar.

The camaraderie and cooperation between these very macho gondoliers was something to see. At times they seemed to be actively ignoring each other on the water but always the gondolas danced gracefully around each other and the other obstacles of the canals.

Venice in B&W

Our rainy walk around Venice was a real eye opener. Despite the wonderful colors, I tried converting some of our images to black and white. I like the way it captured the wonderful textures and also the mood - it was indeed a slow, dreary morning.

 

  

At one point we got totally lost and hit a watery dead end. Navigating in Venice is appropriately an art form even if you have all the necessary address information!

Fall Panorama.

Yesterday morning was a beauty of a fall morning. I was too late in capturing the pink sky that hung over the low fog but did manage to snap a few shots which I put together in this panorama.

The colors are a bit muted - most of the maple reds have moved on it appears - but it's still a gorgeous sight.

Rainy Canal...

The rainy led us along some amazing passageways and canals...

The Canals of Venice

As we continued our walk through the drizzle, we started to really understand the fact that the Venetian streets are made of water. We watched this boat come down the narrow canal towards us, with the other boats looking so much like parked cars.

  

This city is like nothing I've ever experience before.

Venetian textures...

As we made our way through the drizzling streets of Venice, we ran into scenes with colors and textures that are so different from what we see in New England.

This building, with its textured face, tiny balcony and bright flowers, was one of my favorites.

Rainy alley...

Our first full day in Venice started with continuing drizzle but this did not stop us from getting out and about. We started by walking out our window past the enormous Queen Victoria which had docked outside our hotel. The whole Venice / cruise ship thing is kind of a bummer. Crowds rush off the ship and a wave of tourists sweep towards St. Marks square for the day. At dusk the tide goes back out and often as night falls you see the ship being towed out to sea as we did on our first night.

It is what it is I guess and one thing is for sure: it is huge.

Given the influx of tourists on this rainy morning, we headed away from St. Mark's and into the nearby residential neighborhood. We had found dinner at a family place the night before. The food was simple and delicious and the entertainment was great: a gentleman and a guitar who got much of the local clientele singing along before he was finished.

As we wandered away from the great canal through rainy streets we found many alleys like this where clothes had been unsuccessfully hung out to dry.

Venice!

We finally left Florence, taking a fast train to Venice. We pulled into the station in Venice, walked outside with our bags and found the city "bus" that we were to take to our hotel. It was a cloudy day but this did nothing to dampen my astonishment at seeing a city truly built on water.

By the time we arrived at our hotel, the day was brightening a bit and we were treated with this view. Our hotel was wonderfully located with a true residential area behind us and in this direction an ever increasing density of tourism, culminating in St. Mark's Square under the tower in the distance. The building with yellow trim in the foreground is out "bus" stop.

Our first site upon exiting the hotel was the towing of a giant cruise ship out to sea. This shot was taken from our fourth floor hotel window and gives some idea of how this behemoth dwarfed the buildings surrounding the canal.

Lovers Locks...

As we returned to the hotel from Boboli Gardens, we passed one of many instances of lovers padlocks that we saw in Florence.

A naked fat guy on a turtle...

As we prepared to exit Boboli Gardens, we stumbled upon one of Boboli Garden's most whimsical statues...

A naked fat guy riding a turtle? Really? The sculpture dates from the 1500's (have you heard this before?) and apparently depicts the Court jester, (a dwarf) as Bacchus, the God of Wine - definitely one of the more humble Gods I would say. It's whimsical, odd, strangely engaging and hilarious as the same time.

And what is he saying? "Stop! That's close enough! What are you looking at?!"

 

Presumably today, such a commission would be considered pork barrel spending by a bunch of artsy-fartsy liberals. I'm glad the court of Cosimo I sprung for it though as it proved to be a giddy last memory from Boboli Gardens for us.

Now we headed back to our hotel, packed our things and prepared to take the fast train to Venice...

The Grottos of Boboli Gardens.

Making our way out of Boboli Gardens, we stopped at one of the two amazing grottos that the garden contains. This one which dates from the 1500's was home to the original the Prisoners of Micelangelo and now contains replicas.

Grottos are basically caves that have been turned into art in some way or another. This is a view of the main interior which shows the replica's of Micelangelo's Prisoners struggling to release themselves from the stone.

If you peer into the depths, you can see that the statues extend well back into the cave.

Late Summer Dahlia...

[We'll again take a break from Italy this weekend and enjoy a bit of the summer sights from Vermont]

This year's dahlia struggled a bit for much of the summer but has recently really come into it's own. We caught it this morning apparently lit from within.

Cracked...

As we made our way down Boboli Hill, we encountered one of the coolest statues in all of Boboli Gardens.

It is apparently (there is very little signage in Italy) the Tindaro Screpolato sculpture by Igor Mitoraj, a Polish artists from Krakow.

Boboli Gardens

Amazingly the weather cleared very quickly and we were able to walk the gardens under blue skies and puffy white clouds. The gardens rise behind the Palace and we climbed Boboli Hill until we reached the top where we found some truly panoramic views of Florence and the surrounding area.

There are a few hills surrounding Boboli Gardens that offer even more commanding views - and some of them come with castles.

Rainstorm...

Thus far on our trip the weather had been wonderfully accommodating - even if Rome could have been ten degrees cooler. On our last day in Florence though this would change.

Under foreboding skies we crossed the Ponte Vecchio to Pitti Palace and the Bobali Gardens. We were scheduled on an early afternoon train from Florence to Venice and were hoping to spend a couple hours anyway at these gardens which were part of Pitti Palance, the home of the Medici family which ruled Florence for so many years.

Once we bought our tickets, the skies opened and the rain came down. We waited hopefully in the courtyard watching the water stream from the rooftops.

Moon over Florence...

As our night walk around Florence came to a close, we again passed by the Ponte Vecchio and were treated to a view of the moon peeking down on the Arno. The moonlight worked with the cloudy sky and the lights of the city to produce a very special moment for us Vermonters so far from home.

Tomorrow would be a travel day - off to Venice. But before we boarded the fast train, we planned to take a quick tour of the Boboli Gardens across the Arno near Pitti Palace...

The White Giant.

Later in our night walk, we came by a very crowded piazza with live music. As we made our way across it, we found this beautifully lit statue of Neptune.

Apparently the original dates from the 1500's and is now housed in the National Museum while the copy does dangerous duty out among the boisterous crowds. It has been damaged several times over the years, most recently restored in 2007.

Florence at night...

After dinner one evening in Florence, we ventured out for a walk about town with the camera and tripod. The streets were generally quite crowded with tourists despite the late hour (for us Vermonters). Walking around with tripod and camera in the city was a bit new to me and I was surprised that the typical reaction was was to assume we were doing something very important! Also somewhat refreshingly, the local authorities seemed not to have the same issue with tripods and public places that we saw in Washington DC for example.

This lone pedestrian by contrast paid us no attention at all.

Shadows and Light...

As we embarked on the morning ritual to fill the bird feeders, we were privileged to see the morning light at play with the leaves of our young maple tree.

Tomorrow after today's holiday, we'll return to Florence for some night shots and maybe a gelato or two...

September Hosta...

Our hosta here in Vermont has had a tough year. Early in the year, it was pummeled by hail which perforated some leaves and beat it down. Later on deer, for the first time in my experience, decided it looked like good food and munched on it repeatedly.

Now however, it's moving gently into retirement and enjoying some of the low light of our luscious sunsets.

Vermont bugbane

Again taking the weekend off of my slightly obsessive recollection of our recent trip to Italy...

We have a couple bugbane plants here at the house. They start slowly and sometime only "bloom" days before our first killing frost. During the late summer (I cannot believe its September) they start to smell like the best grape candy you can imagine. We're not there yet, but the leaves are delicate and very finely detailed and a joy to see up close.

 

Higher Authority...

As we were crossing the Ponte Vecchio and admiring all the tiny shops with piles of gold jewelry, I snapped this image of a nun consulting a motorcycle cop. It was a fairly lengthy and intense conversation and I would love to have heard - and understood - the subject matter. Alas I'll have to speculate.

The Ponte Vecchio...

After arriving in Florence, we immediately hit the pavement to make our appointment at the Uffizi Gallery (thank you Rick Steves' for that suggestion). To get there, we walked along the Arno and right by the Ponte Vecchio or Old Bridge.

It's less of a bridge and more a boulevard of commerce. The bridge is covered in colorful shops selling mostly gold and other precious goodies. From the west side looking back on the bridge, it looks like this.

And a bit closer up:

I can't think of anything quite like this around here. We have the Bridge of Flowers down in Shelburne Falls, MA and the floating bridge in Brookfield, VT but those aren't really quite the same thing. Oh and the Ponte Vecchio dates from 996. Wow!

Firenze!

We took a bus from Siena up to Florence which took just over an hour and was accompanied by a strong dose of Massive Attack which made for a particularly atmospheric approach into town.

After disembarking and rolling our belongings along the bumpy sidewalks for a bit we were delighted to find that our hotel had a commanding view of the Arno River. It was a stunning day and our first vision from the hotel was of the Ponte Santa Trinita.

Heirloom.

Before we head North to Firenze, let's pause here in Vermont to savor the deliciousness of the local heirloom tomatoes.

This year more than ever we've been enjoying not only their funky and flawed appearence but the hearty texture and mild flavors. I tend to take the easy availability (though not necessarily affordability!) of such things for granted here in the Upper Valley and I definitely should not.

I took this image in the bright sunlight of a beautiful August day...

More Siena Texture...

Before we leave Siena, I couldn't help but post one more "texture and color" shot. We were wandering around a slightly more modern section in Siena and came across this courtyard. There were beautiful trees as well as a small playground. Somehow that juxtaposition with the texture of the building made the courtyard even more fascinating to me.

Next, we'll hop on a bus and take the short ride north to Siena's longtime rival Firenze!