Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Big Dish


Another interruption of the Italia pics for a Photo Hunt entry:

This large dish was part of the Fort Monmouth/Evans Area military base in New Bedford, Monmouth County, New Jersey. Appropriately located along Marconi Road, it's right next to a suburban neighborhood. It was quite a surprise in my travels for work.

This Old-Camera pic (which is a re-post from
this old 'blog entry) was a no-brainer for the Photo Hunt subject "Communication Device."

Friday, July 25, 2008

All the young dudes


The boys confer prior to heading out to the nightclub in Sorrento.

I'm using this as my entry into the Tobi- er, JorjDotOrg
Photo Hunt subject "Chatting." I've been away from the Hunt for a while, hoping to get back in the swing for this round!

More shots from our Italia trip on my Flickr page.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

The Mazz-der


We interrupt the Italy travel photos momentarily for a little gloating:
I recently became the proud new owner of the 2004 Mazda 6i pictured above. I'm loving the performance, not to mention the feeling of satisfaction the comes with driving a car built within the last decade.

Zoom zoom, indeed!

Quiet moments in Italia




We didn't have many quiet moments during our Italy trip, but I did get to observe a few:
TOP - a young couple shares ice cream in a doorway in a small plaza in Venezia. My attempts to shoot this kept getting thwarted by passersby, hence the slight focus problem from rushing. Still like the shot, though.
MIDDLE - also in Venezia, a man finds a quiet spot to read his newspaper.
BOTTOM - Another couple has a tryst while watching the sunset over the Bay of Naples from the cliff-sides of Sorrento. Unfortunately, the spot they chose also happened to be discharge area for tour busses. Just a few minutes after I shot this, three busses arrived and disgorged about a hundred tourists. The tryst was over and the couple drove off...

More shots from our Italia trip on my Flickr page.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Motoring in Italia





Hey! Back from the "the Boot" with many hundreds of pics to share!

Just one of the obvious differences you notice between the US & Italy are the cars. With it's ancient Roman towns being tangled webs of narrow streets, smaller is definitely better.
TOP - In Firenze ("Florence" to us - don't get me started on "Anglecized" place names), I spotted this
Pasquali, a three-wheeled single-seater perfect for Tuscan-town cruising.
2nd - Along with SmartCars and Minis, Fiats were among the more numerous nameplates we encountered. So popular are they in Italy, even this beastie was a big seller: behold the
Fiat Multipla, voted by Top Gear to be the world's "Ugliest Car" in 1999 (and well-deserving of the title, IMHO). This one was spotted in Roma.
3rd - Of course, vehicles of the two-wheeled variety are even more popular in Italia, and their riders will find ways to park as many of them in an available space as possible (like this one in Milano).
BOTTOM - Again from Firenze, a oh-so perfectly aligned row of scooters that just begged to be photographed.

More shots from our Italia trip on my Flickr page.