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Ok, having been all over the western Mediterranean for the past two weeks, I’m back. *sigh* Here, without comment or context (I know, I know), are some of the things I saw:
Not pictured: a bunch of amazing food we ate over the course of the trip.
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Beautiful photos. Must have been a great trip. I’m curious if you deliberately only took vertical photos, or if that’s just what this group happened to be.
Oh great question, I didn’t notice that until you pointed it out. And I also agree great photos.
I shoot everything with my phone and rarely take landscape photos anymore — because I only ever post them on Insta Stories and look at them on my phone.
Great pics, great memories.
Microlino! A fairly new addition to the... pantheon of tiny cars (at least here in Amsterdam).
Saw a segment on 60 minutes about robots for use in sculpting so now I don't know how to tell the old pieces from new. Assuming the ones in your shots are older and carved by human hands? What they did with stone and patience is amazing!
I don't know the bookends but the two in the middle are Bernini's David and Apollo and Daphne, both in the Borghese Gallery. Both very much old and sculpted by hand.
Love these so much. Makes me miss Rome. How were the crowds? A few years ago we braced ourselves for madness but found it quite tolerable. That said, I ended a work trip with a visit to Amsterdam last week and it was quite crowded on a Friday evening.
Welcome back! We missed you. Looks like you had a wonderful time!
Truly well done, man! You have a very good photographic eye!
Very nice pictures. Is the blue one (rome-07.jpg) a picture of the Mediterranean sea or a painting? Anyhow, looks stunning.
That's the Mediterranean. Minimally color-corrected...I tried to match it accurately to what I saw rather than blowing out the saturation. One of the most vivid colors I have ever seen.
See also Radiolab's classic episode Why Isn't the Sky Blue?
Gorgeous! Welcome back.
What's it like to travel in Europe in these times, politically? It's been decades now since I did that but I remember a general goodwill toward Americans from pretty much everyone, maybe tinged with a bit of amusement (which may have had something to do with the fact that I was mostly traveling by bike). Now that the U.S. has become something of a global pariah, have things changed? Did you get the sense people generally responded to you with wariness, or hostility, or sadness, or.....?
I didn't detect anything, but as an introvert, I'm not super chatty with people when I travel so probably not the best person to ask.
Our family just returned from a cruise that had stops in Spain, France and many in Italy. There was an offhand comment about "you Americans and your fast food," by one driver, and another about how "Trump is f**king everything up for you," by another. Those were the only hints of animosity we experienced. Everywhere we went, people were gracious and welcoming. The worst part of it all was that one cab driver in NYC who cursed the traffic all the way to JFK.
Beautiful photos, Jason — looks like it was a terrific trip. We went to Rome in January 2024 (my first time) and I wasn't prepared for the in-person experience of the history and art I'd only studied. Thanks for the reminders!
I have thought a lot about that Gentileschi's Slaying of Holofernes, and something about your framing made me consider it differently. In this frame her face seems determined to an unpleasant but necessary task. I always though there was more hate to it but this punch in feels more resigned than mad.
What washed over you when you stood in front of it?
My photo is of Caravaggio's version; Gentileschi's feels more...urgent.
OMG, what a blunder on my part. But it does explain the vibe issue I was having.
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