Paestum, Greek Ruins in southern Italy

Positano

At night from Restaurant



Room Service


Positano from room


Positano from beach


Positano by night

Cinque Terre

Pompeii, warning, parental discretion is advised

This is history and is a poignant piece of history. The first image is of a dog that was tied to a chain during the eruption. The other two images were of slaves who were supposed to ensure nothing was stolen while the masters ran away. While these images may be disturbing, it is a part of history. They would not have suffered as the temperatures rose to 800 degrees in mere seconds.

Hello Fellow Insight Tour Folks

I know many of our new friends from our Insight tour will be back home by now and recovering from our bus ride together. The folks on our tour were great and we hope to continue an exchange with many of the participants. In many respects, the fellow bus riders were the highlight of the tour.

I will post the good pictures from the tour on my www.mphoto.ca site sometime in early November. Ciao!

Monterosso, Lake Como, Assisi and Capri

Monterosso, cloudy day.....












Assisi





Lake Como










The Island of Capri

more Pompeii

Yes, I know I should write more but for now, it is all we can do to go through a few images and get some sleep. A full story will be added when I return home :)

It almost looks like I had the run of the place to myself, right? I did not. There were thousands of people milling about. I have had to get good at guerilla photography tactics. In fact, I may write a book….. Patience and timing is everything. Racing ahead or lagging behind the tour groups leaves opportunity to take photos with little or no people.

I also must comment about the new Canon 5D MKII (it is new to me but a year old technology). The full frame sensor is amazing. The low light capability is excellent and I have only taken my 24-105 lens off twice. It has turned out to be a great investment. This ends the Canon ad :)

Yeah, we are on our own! (Pompeii Content)

Well the tour is over and we have had our first real authentic meal. Yeah Monterosso!! What a beautiful location. The area was cloudy so there were no good photo op’s today but we are hiking the trails on Monday.

The day before, we were in, well, I cannot remember. Wait, we were in Pompeii. Very cool place. The entire are was covered by 20 feet of pumice and the town was obliterated (20,000 inhabitants, some got away, some did not). If you are squeamish, don’t look at the pictures.

We are in Cinque Terre for tonight and Monday night and then we are on the train to Positano where we will spend 5 nights recuperating from the tour food. The food on the tour, while quasi-authentic Italian, was not that great and I expect it was Westernized to cater to the common denominator.

Today, I had fresh salted anchovies with tuna and olive pasta for lunch and clam sauce spaghetti of supper. There were 30 clams in the shell in the spaghetti. It was simply stunning!!! Did I mention the wine? Every area has its own wine and the red wine has been very very good. You know what they say, a bottle a day keeps…….. away.

Enjoy the images from Italy

The Tour Is Over

Sorrento from hotel




Sorrento from hotel, Vesuvius and Napoli in background



Sienna


Sienna


Sienna