Venice is world-renowned for their Blown glass craftsmanship. They had incredible examples of their talent. I was lucky enough to witness one of their artists in action. They seemed very weary of me and my camera and come to find out later they have had problems of people photographing technique and replicating the famous Venetian glass. There's only about 8 people in Venice that are skilled masters in this art.
I wanted to post this shot because it has the two peaks of Mount Vesuvius. The crater is in between the two peaks. This means that if you drew a line following the outer edges of the two peaks and intersected it at the top , thats how big this mountain was before that fateful day.
This guy woke up on August 24th 79AD in his home town. A beautiful town that overlooked the Mediterranean sea. he had thoughts about his life and his children and then a massive volcanic eruption occurred. Him and his town disappeared .
Ok, I have to make a confession. I am a sculpture nut. I love art in general , photography , paintings and all other avenues. But, when I stand in front of a statue I really feel it. So when I stood looking at Michelangelo's Pietà it was breathtaking.
A centurion eating lunch. I never thought I would label a photo as such. There were many people dressed as early Romans. What they did was grab your camera and pose with you and charge you 5 Euro. I have to say that their costumes were very authentic.
The Colosseum in Rome. What an incredible structure that was built by emperor Vespasian between 70 and 72 AD. It used to be covered in white marble. My question was how did it get in such disrepair? It's in the center of a thriving city. You would think they would have kept it in all it's splendor. I got my answer from the tour guide 'Georgio.' The Colosseum did well putting on shows of men fighting men, men fighting beasts, beasts fighting beasts, etc until around 500 AD when Romes economy went sour. Then the squatters moved in . They sold the white marble facade and turned it into a giant apartment building. An earthquake in 1349 caused the outer wall to collapse and the rest is history. I can only imagine it with the white marble and its silk roof . Please click picture for a better view. This was a panoramic shot that I used 5 separate photos to create.
This was our guide Georgio. He kind of had a 'Ben Stein' thing going on. He was really good actually. He taught art history in college until he retired.
This is George Jettsons house, its right down the road from Spacely Spockets. . . just kidding.
And, again with the creepy-ass clowns.
Today they were running the bulls in my village. I'm not sure what the objective was but I think it was to move the bulls from one end of town to other while generally irritating the bull. There was some stunning horsemanship displayed however.
If you look carefully these kids have a hand full of bull. I would be a bit worried that at one point the bull would say to himself "ya-know what? I don't have to take this."
I was about 6 years old and I yanked a cats tail and received a nasty scratch because of it. Lesson learned: Mammals with tails don't like having them yanked by mammals without tails.
The horsemen formed a u-shaped formation around the bull. It reminded me of the president and the secret service. They had long sticks with forked prods on the end to steer the bull. I don't think the secret service uses these. . . .although, they were affective. Maybe they should consider it.
