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Tuscany by Photocat, Part 3 : Pienza
We took a short drive from Montepulciano to Pienza. I felt sad to leave MonteP. as I thought that was the most beautiful thing I ever saw, of course I had no clue that wherever you venture in Tuscany, one spot is always nicer then the previous one.
Figs grow in the wild here, I personally think they look a bit yukky... They only are good for weird photography objects.
Trees here have strange shapes too...
We pass a little park, old people basking in the october sun, when I see those announcements. They are off people who passed away. It strikes me that lots of people in Tuscany reach a really old age. It must he healthy to live here.
We enter Pienza through a Gate, another gate for another little hill town. We are lucky to have Michael (with hat and beige vest) as our guide, as he knows all the interesting spots to photograph in this area...
Everytime we park the van, I have this feeling of new adventures waiting on us. It is all so exiting. I am on sharp from morning till evening. I could use another pair of extra eyes here...
I do have the nasty habit of staying behind deliberately, and then call on them so they turn around. That is when I snap them. The decisive moment... I invent my own decisive split seconds.
From left to right: Charles, Michael, Mick, Ann, Madeline. Chris and Rachel have vanished...
Italian Beauties have laundry too:
It pays to look up, lots of hidden gems above eye line...
We have no time to loose, time is precious, time gives us room to see more and photograph more.
As Dorothea Lange said: Live and look around in each day as if it is the last day that you can see...
Or something in that area. I am too lazy now to go and get the book for the exact quote.
We go on a hunt for a nice place for lunch, it is getting close to one, so we need to order before that or wait till four before we can eat again... Rachel and Chris have joined us again, we follow Michael...
We pass some little piazza's, the names from one more romantic then the other, it all speaks to the imagination.
I am getting a bit worried, as Michael keeps walking, and we get very close to one... Don't want to miss out on lunch, I can't shoot on a grumbling stomach...
But no, finally we find a little cafe, with some tables outside, and that will be our base for lunch. It takes us forever to order as the guy does not understand a word of english, and we only notice the english translation of the menu AFTER we ordered everything.
I end op with bread with fish, and I hate fish..
While we wait on our food, I get up and take some snappies around us. A nice door, in decay, but I repeat: it would look like hell in UK, but it is "beautiful" in Tuscany. I like weathered things, and lots of those here.
In my mind, I can see me going back in time, and maybe watch Casanova come home here, and opening his frontdoor with a giant key... I know, my mind slips often!
The cutest little mail box is hanging on house 24...
I wished I was a wine drinker, I am not. So the bottles only have a cuteness factor for me...
I shoot some more doors, they never bore me. I will make a door poster once back home. They sell those here, but I can make my own!
We have our lunch at the King Arthur cafe, I wonder if Arthur ever was here...
We split up after lunch, each goes his or her own way. I am in a hurry, I want to explore and see what is here!
I walk a while and end up on the edge of town, when I peek over the wall, it takes my breath away.
Sadly enough, I have no polarizer on my lens, and it is an extremely hazy day, I know the pics will not do justice to reality.
This is the kind of landscape you want to come and shoot early in the morning or later in the evening...
We see the trees that are unmistakenly connected to our image of Tuscany, the conifers, in a row, with hig cones.
They have a duomo in Pienza, and I take a quick look inside. Too much old ghosts in there... I hasten to be outside again, the day is way too beautiful to be inside anyway. Inside smells like catholics, so I need to hide and run...
In going out, I notice the lock on the door... real craftmanship, centuries old...
It has become close to four, and the shops are opening up again. Little fluffy lamb clouds in a blue sky. I love Italy...
I chat for a while with a young german couple with a dog. Cute dog with a sunflower stuck between his collier...
There is a pope's palace in Pienza, and I am heading towards it. Here is a close up from one of the locks on one of the many doors.
More people snapping...
Amazing buildings, architecture, patterns, light plays, sun rays catched in drawings and fresco's on the walls...
The crescents, representing the battle against Islam, Pope Picolino (? - spelling?) fought a bitter war with the turks...
He built his palace in Pienza, it shows us so much richness... He died before he saw the finished palace. It is now left for us to see, and it sucks that you can't take photographs inside...
The weapon shield of Pope Picolino...
One of the wooden ceilings in the Popal palace...
More fresco's on the court yard walls.
The cities Belltower seen from the third floor in the palace
A view from the Balcony on the fourth floor of the popal palace, it left me speechless, and we all know that that is not an easy thing to happen to me...
The reality was so much nicer then one can catch in photographs.
An old piece of flemish furniture, I managed to sneek one picture in. I hate it when they forbid photography.
There are methods enough to prepare and save furniture and carpets from effects from flash photography, they use it in the Amsterdam Rijks museum, and I always try not to flash. As to not be discovered.
An 17th century wall carpet in the dining room. That pope sure had coins enough if he could order embellishments like that... I guess he kind of forgot his promise of poverty...
Time to go home, back to the van, we have to be careful to avoid those little critters with 3 wheels...
To be continued...
Figs grow in the wild here, I personally think they look a bit yukky... They only are good for weird photography objects.
Trees here have strange shapes too...
We pass a little park, old people basking in the october sun, when I see those announcements. They are off people who passed away. It strikes me that lots of people in Tuscany reach a really old age. It must he healthy to live here.
We enter Pienza through a Gate, another gate for another little hill town. We are lucky to have Michael (with hat and beige vest) as our guide, as he knows all the interesting spots to photograph in this area...
Everytime we park the van, I have this feeling of new adventures waiting on us. It is all so exiting. I am on sharp from morning till evening. I could use another pair of extra eyes here...
I do have the nasty habit of staying behind deliberately, and then call on them so they turn around. That is when I snap them. The decisive moment... I invent my own decisive split seconds.
From left to right: Charles, Michael, Mick, Ann, Madeline. Chris and Rachel have vanished...
Italian Beauties have laundry too:
It pays to look up, lots of hidden gems above eye line...
We have no time to loose, time is precious, time gives us room to see more and photograph more.
As Dorothea Lange said: Live and look around in each day as if it is the last day that you can see...
Or something in that area. I am too lazy now to go and get the book for the exact quote.
We go on a hunt for a nice place for lunch, it is getting close to one, so we need to order before that or wait till four before we can eat again... Rachel and Chris have joined us again, we follow Michael...
We pass some little piazza's, the names from one more romantic then the other, it all speaks to the imagination.
I am getting a bit worried, as Michael keeps walking, and we get very close to one... Don't want to miss out on lunch, I can't shoot on a grumbling stomach...
But no, finally we find a little cafe, with some tables outside, and that will be our base for lunch. It takes us forever to order as the guy does not understand a word of english, and we only notice the english translation of the menu AFTER we ordered everything.
I end op with bread with fish, and I hate fish..
While we wait on our food, I get up and take some snappies around us. A nice door, in decay, but I repeat: it would look like hell in UK, but it is "beautiful" in Tuscany. I like weathered things, and lots of those here.
In my mind, I can see me going back in time, and maybe watch Casanova come home here, and opening his frontdoor with a giant key... I know, my mind slips often!
The cutest little mail box is hanging on house 24...
I wished I was a wine drinker, I am not. So the bottles only have a cuteness factor for me...
I shoot some more doors, they never bore me. I will make a door poster once back home. They sell those here, but I can make my own!
We have our lunch at the King Arthur cafe, I wonder if Arthur ever was here...
We split up after lunch, each goes his or her own way. I am in a hurry, I want to explore and see what is here!
I walk a while and end up on the edge of town, when I peek over the wall, it takes my breath away.
Sadly enough, I have no polarizer on my lens, and it is an extremely hazy day, I know the pics will not do justice to reality.
This is the kind of landscape you want to come and shoot early in the morning or later in the evening...
We see the trees that are unmistakenly connected to our image of Tuscany, the conifers, in a row, with hig cones.
They have a duomo in Pienza, and I take a quick look inside. Too much old ghosts in there... I hasten to be outside again, the day is way too beautiful to be inside anyway. Inside smells like catholics, so I need to hide and run...
In going out, I notice the lock on the door... real craftmanship, centuries old...
It has become close to four, and the shops are opening up again. Little fluffy lamb clouds in a blue sky. I love Italy...
I chat for a while with a young german couple with a dog. Cute dog with a sunflower stuck between his collier...
There is a pope's palace in Pienza, and I am heading towards it. Here is a close up from one of the locks on one of the many doors.
More people snapping...
Amazing buildings, architecture, patterns, light plays, sun rays catched in drawings and fresco's on the walls...
The crescents, representing the battle against Islam, Pope Picolino (? - spelling?) fought a bitter war with the turks...
He built his palace in Pienza, it shows us so much richness... He died before he saw the finished palace. It is now left for us to see, and it sucks that you can't take photographs inside...
The weapon shield of Pope Picolino...
One of the wooden ceilings in the Popal palace...
More fresco's on the court yard walls.
The cities Belltower seen from the third floor in the palace
A view from the Balcony on the fourth floor of the popal palace, it left me speechless, and we all know that that is not an easy thing to happen to me...
The reality was so much nicer then one can catch in photographs.
An old piece of flemish furniture, I managed to sneek one picture in. I hate it when they forbid photography.
There are methods enough to prepare and save furniture and carpets from effects from flash photography, they use it in the Amsterdam Rijks museum, and I always try not to flash. As to not be discovered.
An 17th century wall carpet in the dining room. That pope sure had coins enough if he could order embellishments like that... I guess he kind of forgot his promise of poverty...
Time to go home, back to the van, we have to be careful to avoid those little critters with 3 wheels...
To be continued...
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Comments
ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL....Fantastic work.....keep it coming.
THANX FOR SHARING.
No I have never been to Pienza......don't know why the little bar is named after me.....
It means a lot to me. There are still some days to come, I bet you will be bored stiff by the end of the week.
The trip was marvellous, I hope I can go back...
This also got me back in blogging. Good thing to write it all down here on D-grin...
Thanks again for looking!
http://photocatseyes.net
http://www.zazzle.com/photocatseyes
You're right, the landscapes look exactly as I'd picture them.
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
There is absolutely no way I will be bored of pics from that part of the world.....just makes want to return to Prague so i can more easily travel to places like Tuscany, Spain, Slovaka, etc etc...Prague being almost dead ctr of Europe and trains going everywhere.... So bore me if you can....I think not
Thanks for the comments. I will try to wrap up part four today...
First need to go and help an older couple with their mac set up...
http://photocatseyes.net
http://www.zazzle.com/photocatseyes