Kat Eye Studio

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The Good Stuff

Since we’ve been here in Italy, we’ve tried a lot of wine. And we’ve found a lot of good wine! I didn’t like wine very much before we came here, but now I appreciate it in a different way. Now I can really tell the young wines that are more like juice from the more complex wines. There is nothing quite like tasting a fabulous new wine!

I also love all of the enoteche (wine shops) and grocery store shelves and window displays (like this one) that are filled with so much wine. It’s such a part of the culture here. And when you buy wine in a nice shop, they wrap it beautifully for you or, really nice wines, come in these boxes. I really want one of these wine boxes, I have no idea what for, but I want one!

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Just a Glimpse

A glimpse of the flowers, half hidden by shutters. A glimpse of color. I love this photo, another Burano image. Today it is sunny and -3C, the ground is frosty and I just needed something that said “warm and summery.” That’s the beauty of photos, they can take you to a different place and time if you want to go. You get to revisit places you’ve been or see places you’ve never been through someone else’s eyes.

Yesterday we got back from a great weekend in the Dolomites, the Alps up near Austria. I won’t have time to go through pics until this weekend, because this week is study week – my theory driver’s exam is on Friday. My practice tests have improved from passing 40% of the time to passing 60% of the time… but those still aren’t good odds. I’m off to make a pot of tea and to study!

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Hallways with Arches

This is an early favorite, from our trip to Pavia in the spring. I don’t remember the name of the Castello, but it had a huge courtyard with these beautiful arcades on the first and second levels. This was the second level. I love the perspective of looking down the hallway as the arches get smaller and smaller. Perspective is a fun thing to play with!

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Arches and Courtyards

This courtyard is in an abbey in Verona. Again, more arches. But also of note are all of the courtyards. From the outside, the street view, many cities just have sidewalks and buildings and streets. But once you get inside, it often opens up into these wonderful courtyards. Hidden little places of beauty with greenery or fountains, the ability to get some outside air and sunshine in a nicer environment. Buildings have courtyards, cities have piazzas for the same thing.

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Arches with a Fountain

This photo is of the Palazzo della Ragione with the fountain in Piazza delle Erbe in front, in Padova (aka Padua). I spent a fun day there with my sister, on our tour of the Veneto in November. This town is full of arches, there are all of these covered arcade walkways along the streets. It was a sunny day when we were there, but I bet everyone is thankful for them when it rains.

I had an amazing realization about arches this morning… Of course it’s not just me, there are lots of arches all over the place because it’s part of Rennaisance architecture and Italy is where the Rennaisance happened. Whew. Glad I figured that one out.

But yesterday’s post also made me realize that I do show a selective view of the places we visit in my photography. Do you notice graffiti in my photos very often? No, but there’s lots of it here in Italy. Patrick mentioned it in his blog post yesterday. So the photographer does impose his or her preferences in the photographs. And, apparently, I prefer arches, with no graffiti!

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Arches

I loved this courtyard in the Palazzo Ducale in Genova. I’ve been looking at the photos I have in queue to post on my blog and have noticed that I have a LOT with arches. Arches inside buildings, arches outside. Arches of gates, arches of hallways, arches of windows. Either arches just catch my eye or they are just everywhere here in Europe! Maybe both. I will probably never be able to answer that question, because you can’t really extract the photographer from the photographs to see the true reality. You just see the piece of reality that the photographer saw at that moment. And my reality includes a LOT of arches…