Looking down on the Colosseum from the Palatine Hill above the Roman Forum. From here you can get a sense of how much it once towered over the rest of the city (to a large extent it still does).
Date: 10/19/2011 Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ40 Click for larger view
This is a photo of the Grand Canal in Venice from my 2011 Eurotrip. I had previously posted it as a pseudo-HDR experiment (i.e., HDR from a single image), but as my photo-processing skills have improved in the two years since the original post, I thought this was a photo worth revisiting. I think this non-HDR version looks much better, sharper and more realistic.
Date: 10/23/2011 Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ40 Click for larger view
While I was at it, I also decided to re-process this photo from the same trip, taken in Krka National Park, Croatia, but in this case, rather than create a new post, I just updated the photo in the original post with a better version:
This is a view of the Florence Cathedral’s dome as seen from the top of Giotto’s Campanile (a.k.a., Giotto’s Bell Tower), overlooking the beautiful city of Florence and out toward the hills beyond. Somewhere in those hills stands the villa in which I lived for two weeks during the fall of 2011.
Date: 10/16/2011 Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ40 Click for larger view
This is a shot from inside the Pantheon in Rome, Italy. It is one of the best preserved of all Ancient Roman buildings, and its dome is the world’s largest unreinforced concrete dome.
Because of the Pantheon’s size and circular shape, it’s difficult to get large portions of the interior in frame without taking a panorama, so this one does not include the oculus (opening at the top of the dome), but you can see the sunlight from the opening shining down on the side of the dome. The overexposed entrance sort of makes it appear as if people are filing in through some type of mystical portal . . . well, it would make a neat story, anyway.
Date: 10/21/2011 Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ40 Click for larger view
It’s been a while since I’ve revisited Italy. Here’s a shot from Venice looking down a canal toward the Madonna dell’Orto church. This photo also features my reflection in the water as I snapped the photo from a bridge, and the Italian flag hanging from a window in the upper-left corner.
Date: 10/22/2011 Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ40 Click for larger view
Lucca is a charming Tuscan city still surrounded by medieval walls and featuring several towers that you can climb to get a bird’s-eye view. This photo was taken from the top of one of those towers.
Date: 10/17/2011 Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ40 Click for larger view
This is the cathedral at the heart of the Piazza del Duomo in Pisa, Italy, taken during my 2011 Eurotrip. My favorite feature of this photo is the tiled walkway.
Date: 10/27/2011 Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ40 Click for larger view
Behind the cathedral sits the famous Leaning Tower, but I’ll save that photo for another day.
I was heading back to Florence from Cinque Terre when my train stopped in Pisa for a short layover. There was just enough time to make the 30-minute walk to see the Leaning Tower, so I ventured out. On the way, I stopped on a bridge crossing the Arno River to snap this photo.
Date: 10/27/2011 Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ40 Click for larger view
This was taken during my 2011 Eurotrip after my long climb to the top of Giotto’s Campanile (a.k.a., Giotto’s Bell Tower) in Florence, Italy. Once at the top, you are rewarded with a splendid 360-degree view of this historic city, so it’s well worth the climb.
Date: 10/16/2011 Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ40 Click for larger view