I discovered something new on my excursion around town a couple of days ago – newspaper boxes! These were so fun to photograph, and are something I would not have even seen in the past. Such great texture, color and shape in these weathered boxes.
They also made a great repeating pattern, all lined up in a row. The color differences make it more visually interesting, breaking up the pattern.
Do you have any of these around your town? Have you noticed them before?
We were in Greece on Easter Sunday so we had the opportunity to learn some of the local traditions for celebrating Easter. A red egg, a symbol of renewal, is served to each person at breakfast. Isn’t that a gorgeous red? I loved the primary color combination at our breakfast table that morning. Brandon loves the yolks of hard boiled eggs, so he ate all three of them.
The other Easter tradition we learned about is the large gatherings of family and friends on Sunday afternoon, where a whole lamb is roasted over an open pit fire. It was an interesting sight, these whole lambs rotating over a bed of coals. Nothing I particularly cared to photograph though! Patrick loves lamb so he enjoyed having a platter of freshly roasted meat at both lunch and dinner. I’m not fond of lamb, so I stuck to other options like a yummy Greek Salad.
Learning about the traditions of other places is one of the fun things about traveling and living abroad. You learn that there are more ways of celebrating, believing or even day-to-day living than you could ever imagine from the point of view of your home culture. I don’t think you ever stop being surprised, but you become more open and accepting of just about anything.
I think our world would be a more accepting and friendly place, if we all just travelled more. Do you agree?
Tricolore in Italian means three colors. It’s the nickname of the Italian flag with its green, white and red, similar to our nickname of “stars and stripes” for the US flag. Yesterday, the three colors were found everywhere for the celebration of 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy. It was a special “one time” holiday, and schools, banks and businesses were closed. We hadn’t known about this in advance, so it was a bonus day off for us. We enjoyed a lazy morning at home and then went into Milan to see what was going on.
I don’t know if this is the same in all European cultures, but on public holidays Italians seem to gather in the piazzas and pedestrian zones. They get out and about. The museums and restaurants are always open and full, even if the shops are not. Surprisingly the shops were open this day, which made it even busier.
There were probably a lot of special events such as concerts going on, but we just enjoyed walking around. Our excursion became a quest to spot the Tricolore, since the colors of the Italian flag were creatively displayed in many unusual places. The colors could be found on public buildings (above) and the light posts became flagpoles in Piazza del Duomo.
They ranged from a complete window set up, like my favorite store Campo Marzio…
… to a subtle little addition in an otherwise full display.
Who knew there was so much to be found in green, white and red? You could outfit your whole desk or wardrobe! I loved these little clocks.
You can’t forget jewelry. Swarovski had a special edition crystal to commemorate the anniversary.
The street vendors were not to be left out. It was a rainy day so you never knew when you might need an umbrella.
The vendors who usually sold scarves or other trinket merchandise were in on the holiday too.
Flags could be found everywhere. On heads…
… and in hands.
The pride in country, through display of the flag, was visible everywhere. We ended our day in Milan by finding a special tram, painted in the tricolore and covered in lights.
We were nearly home when we saw an amazing light show, at the Villa Reale (Royal Villa). Just up the road from us, this “villa” was once the summer home of the king of Italy. They occasionally change the color of the lights, but we’ve never seen the tricolore before. It was a great end to our color-spotting day.
Happy Anniversary Italy! We were happy to be here to see your celebration, and the colors of your country so proudly displayed.
PS – I didn’t forget! Today was the drawing for the giveaway of the Florentine papers. The winner is Deb of the blog Learning As I Go. Congrats to Deb, and thank you all so much for entering.
We stopped back home last Saturday night briefly before flying out to Sicily, just long enough to download my Carnevale photos and sleep for the night. Here’s a little glimpse of Carnevale to whet your appetite. Does it leave you wanting more?
I’ll see you all on Monday!
OK, here it is. The third in the series I showed you yesterday. This is another image found on the streets of Parma. I’m toying with calling this series “Classic Italian” but we’ll have to see how it forms up. So far, it seems to be classic red vehicles on the streets of Italy near some sort of grocery crates. I don’t know if that will hold, but who would have thought I would have three of these? We’ll see what I find next week, when we visit Sicily.
The Exploring with a Camera: Breaking the Rule of Thirds link is now closed. The winner of the “C is for Camera” journal is Michelle, who goes by Pixie Dreams on Flickr. Congrats Michelle! Thanks so much to all who linked in, it was great to see all of these wonderful images. Don’t forget to visit Tammy Lee Bradley at Bliss and Folly to see who won the Vintage Camera trio.
Come back tomorrow for the next Exploring with a Camera post, this week we’re going to Capture the Sky!
What fun, holiday lights! This is the holiday streetcar in Milan, where for the price of a transit ticket you can take a ride and get your picture taken with Santa. What a fun holiday tradition, and such festive lights!
Now it’s time to Share Your View. Link in your recent or archive image of holiday lights below to share and then visit the other links to see what others have found. Share what you’ve learned in the process, and any tips or tricks you figured out – either in the comments here or on your blog, we would all love to learn from you too.
Link will stay open for 30 days, so feel free to come back any time you have a great capture of holiday lights. I can’t wait to see your view – thanks for participating!
