sunset on air

Yesterday there was a spectacular sunset on air over my house.

Such sunsets are possible only uphill like where I live. The sun sets much sooner than at sea which means the colours are more gold like. At sea the sunset would be red and on fire instead.
I’m trying to set something up in order to make the silhouette more interesting: if you have anything to suggest I would love to try it because I get such sunsets at least once every week during fall season.
Thanks!

Snail festival at La Serra (SP) – sagra delle lumaghe a La Serra

For some this is probably revolting but I must say they are not bad at all. I’m talking about snails of course.
I gotta say: eating them is much easier when you are surrounded by a couple of thousand people all claiming this is the best meal ever. They appear disgusting and while eating them you cannot help but thinking of the little trail they use to leave behind, but they taste all right. If you get a chance I recommend trying.

La Serra si trova sopra Lerici (SP) e andando là si gode di un fantastico tramonto sul golfo dei poeti.

Day at Cinque terre and love path

This time I went to Cinque Terre with my girlfriend and since she is not lazy at all we made the whole path from Monterosso to Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. For the last time I was in Riomaggiore follow this link: –> link
Here is the first glimpse of the sea out of Monterosso train station.

Sight of Monterosso from the love path

This was not a cloudless day. I liked a lot the shadow of clouds over the sea

Vernazza from the love path

A very hot girl fighting the waves in Vernazza

Another maybe even hotter girl

Seagull over Vernazza’s clouds

The path

I have also a very special video here. The small rocks make a particular sound in Manarola/Corniglia and the only way to make it audible to you was a video:

NOTE: I’ve just updated the video! Apparently I forgot to put the audio there during the processing

A picture from Corniglia

A picture from Manarola

A butterfly

Some idiots thought this funny

Nicolò’s house – goodbye party

A friend of mine is moving out from his house. Some of the alcohol was going to get wasted and he decided for some reason to give a party in honour of his house. I got there 10 minutes after the party was started and here is what I’ve found:

Shortly later, someone (Paolo) decided to take off his bell…

War is raging between Paolo and Davide

The war left some marks in the and of the night

What better way for ending a peaceful alchool night then a swim with pattino?

e pioggia fu’

Finally the sunny hell has been broken by a true summer lightning storm. Yesterday night I was kinda hysteric without any plausible explanation, so this morning I discovered a new mighty power on me: when rain is coming I can tell, just like animals can. Ain’t that cool?
If you fear some kind of nature calamity is approaching and you’d happen to see me migrating… well… I told you!
I took the chance to shoot some artistic photos (right before migrating)!

Finalmente è tornata la pioggia dopo quasi un mese di secco potente. Ieri sera ero praticamente isterico senza riuscire a comprenderne il motivo, quindi questa matina ho scoperto di avere un potere speciale: avverto l’arrivo della pioggia esattamente come gli animali. Incredibile, vero?
Se aveste il sospetto di una qualche calamità naturale e per caso mi vedeste migrare… beh… vi ho avvisato!
Ho colto l’occasione per scattare un paio di foto artistiche!

Personally I do love rain, so much that fall is my favourite season. When the storm is on I like to watch it with the same hypnotic fervour people have when around a fire. I like walking in the rain (and singing sometimes) without umbrella; I have a special taste for rain wet hair (mostly in girls’ hair though). I like the smell of air when it’s raining (although I learned it’s not precisely healthy being mostly composed by Ozone), and I like to think of nature placating its thirst.

What’s more important I love the fact that when the storm breaks the sun gives back its bless.

Personalmente adoro la pioggia, tanto che l’autunno è la mia stagione preferita dell’anno. Mi piace starla a guardare con lo stesso ipnotismo con cui guardo il fuoco. Mi piace camminare nella pioggia senza ombrello e lasciare che mi bagni i capelli. Mi piace perché l’aria è più pulita quando piove, la natura si disseta e soprattutto, dopo la pioggia spunta sempre il sole.

A day on Riomaggiore (cinqueterre)

CinqueTerre (= “five lands“) are five fishing villages in the middle of Cinqueterre National Park, a few kilometers north-west of Golfo della Spezia; this park has recently received a prestigious acknowledgment by UNESCO, which has defined this territory as a “humanity’s world heritage“. Every year millions of tourists from all over the world visit this site thanks to the beauty of the national park, the crystal clear waters and mostly for the most charming path of the world: the love path (via dell’amore).

I didn’t walk the love path, not this time, because I was with lazy friends; for a native the love path is something done many times each year, so I’ll surely get my chance of shooting some pictures from there before long.
Today we went to Riomaggiore (SP), the first of the 5 Terre (at least for those coming from La Spezia). There is a selection of ways to reach this place and all the others. My ultra rated suggestion is a motorbike, followed by boat and train. There are different pros and cons with each solution.
Coming by motorbike means a wonderful asphalt with impossible grip and constant fight between speed and the urge to stop the bike and shoot pictures. The road you’d take is at almost 200 meters o.s.l. which means a 270° sea sight. A very good tele is totally advised. The cons are that you must park the bike somewhere and that means going UP to the bike after a long hot day of sea. I won’t go into details: you’ll see…
Coming by boat is fascinating, I never actually tried it because, as native, I have some haste for invasive boats… but you can actually take the ferry from a lot of cities (Lerici, Fiumaretta, Portovenere etc.) or use your own (at least I believe so…).
By train you have top commodity. You can buy a full inclusive ticket (5 Terre-card) in La Spezia station (or any other), which gives you unlimited access to the trains to and from 5 Terre, and naturally you won’t pay for the love path (yeah: you pay to access the love path but it’s totally worth it). Try to picture it: you wake up in a camping site in Levanto, take the first train to Monterosso, stay there the time to shoot some pictures, take another train to Riomaggiore, come back to Vernazza, some love path and back to Levanto: all with the same cheap ticket! Another advantage is that the train stations are quite close to the sea: not so much to walk. Here is a little sample of Riomaggiore’s

Usually trains are so long (and full) that top and bottom are still well inside the tunnel and many tourists mistake the station for a train traffic-light or something.

The village is suspended into time. I’ve been there in every season and with every possible weather condition for many years and they still look the same.

Ok, there are some ATMs, and a little bit too many tourists to consider it pure, but the core of the fishing village is preserved. Go to Monterosso at 5 o’clock in the morning and you’ll see the fishers’ boats coming back loaded with fish (acciughe in particular).

Let’s take a look at the sea now, shall we? You can’t see it but there is a cave in Riomaggiore you can explore (about 30 meters deep). Go to the beach in the afternoon then swim close to the coast for about 200 meters on the south side.

Most people can retaliate a place all by themselves.

Finally the love path. This time there was no way I could go, but I climbed up to shoot the starting point of via dell’amore.

A note about my Canon Powershot G7. The camera shot a total of 170 photos: 700MB in the SD card with an average of 4.5MB per photo. 2/3 of them where discarded but after just 1 week of use I’m totally in awe for this amazing gadget. The colors are amazingly true and I played a lot with the manual settings. Indeed: almost all the pictures were shot with manual settings but surely image stabilization and auto-focus helped a lot. I never used the tripod: there was absolutely no need. The battery gave no sign of giving away: I believe 100 more shot were available!
This place looks spectacular also below water: pity I can’t afford the water cover.

My friends trying to locate an empty spot

Antonio: beginning of Via dell’amore

Lina (from Sweden) in the tunnel connecting the train station of Riomaggiore with the beach

Christine (from France) smiling!!! First and only time in the whole day

Davide and Lina

Lina having a taste of pizza with Nutella

Antonio

Me without a tan

Lina taking a shot with her cameraphone

Lina

Me with the tan and the beginning of Via dell’Amore

This pic was taken because my friend wanted to test the zooming of the G7

This one too

SanTerenzo & Lerici [edited]

Got back from 5 Terre: awesome day! Can’t wait to post all the pics I’ve shot, but got to wait till tomorrow (well… few hours considering it’s over midnight here). Adapting, cropping and resizing took a huge amount of time.
Here are some postcards from two of my fav places in Liguria.

SanTerenzo by night

Lerici by night

(this last needs to be re-shot. I can do loads better with a tripod and a better positioning. Also the white castle must stay on the right side of the photo)

Ok. Here is the latest shot from Lerici (SP). I think this time I did a fair good job, both shooting and post-processing. The picture was a little overexposed because I needed to compensate the noise correction.

some garden’s flowers

I know these don’t look interesting, but as I told you I’m still in testing phase. Tomorrow I’m taking the camera to 5 Terre and I need to warm it up.
Long the wait enjoy yourself with some of my garden’s flowers…

Winter 2005: snow in Liguria

This was a memorable winter. Snow is rare in Liguria, and when it happens it’s a big surprise for most of the animals.
Some pictures of my dogs. I love them very much, even if they are no more with me.
Rayner & Sheila.

Rusmarine and snow:

My pets and the snow

Rayner & Sheila

Cleo

Name in not important: it’s dead

Sheila & the snow