Day 24 - The Chenonceau Gardens

Just like Château de Villandry, Chenonceau has beautiful gardens. They might not be quite as large, but they're just as lovely. Places like this makes me think of novels like Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. It's been so long since I read it I have forgotten most of it, but I remember that there were several scenes set in gardens, and when I read it I pictured a place like this. So today's picture made me time travel again, just like yesterday's shot.

It also makes me think about how things have changed... Back when the chateau was in its prime there were no smart phones, computers or TVs, and the inhabitants spent their time doing stuff like needlework, riding horses or strolling through the gardens instead. It feels so far removed from how our lives are today, and yet, we're not that different from what they were. We're still the same species, with the same faults and virtues, and yet, those times almost feel like something not only from a fictional novel but a fantasy one. Weirdly, times without electricity feel just as foreign as elves and dragons. Isn't it strange how fast our lives have changed? On the scale of human existence, the speed in which we've evolved the last couple of centuries is astronomical. Our lives have practically gone from fantasy novels to sci-fi RPGs in no time at all. But now I'm starting to get philosophical, and when that mood hits me I ramble quite a bit, so now it's time to end this twaddle of mine.

I hope you're having a wonderful day :)

/MrsHjort

Day 15 - Château de Villandry

Now for one of the more Disney-like chateaus ;). This one was only a stone's throw from the place where we stayed, and we hadn't planned to visit it, but our host recommended it very highly, so off we went. It was well worth a visit. Not only was the chateau beautiful, but its gardens too. It was quite hot that day so we went early in the morning and spent our times in the gardens before going inside to look at the interior. It turned out to be a good choice. I want out into the gardens after we had been in side to use my telephoto lens because it struck me that I hadn't done anything with it, but it was so hot I couldn't concentrate and the pictures didn't come out good at all.

The second and third shots are from the top of the tower in the first shot. The view was just marvelous from up there (and it was a bit cooler up there too). It was nice to get to see the geometric shapes of the plantings from above. All of the gardens had different themes, like "the kitchen garden" that dated back to the middle ages. It's actually the very last one remaining in its style - combining the traditional vegetable garden of the time with Italian influence that brought decorative elements like flower beds, fountains and bowers.

The third shot shows only a small portion of the gardens. There are 150 000 plants growing there and gardeners (ten!) work all year around, changing them out with the seasons on a rotation schema.

I'm glad we went here. Even though it ended up meaning we didn't have the time to visit one of the places we had planned to. It really is a beautiful place. And like I said, now we have a reason to go back :)

/MrsHjort

Day 7 - Cathédrale Notre-Dame d'Amiens

Did you know that Paris is not the only city to have a Cathedral named Notre-Dame? I didn't, until I started to look for places to stop on our road-trip. They're quite similar looking too, but this one is actually larger! And wow, was it worth a stop! It is magnificent! Not only on the outside, but on the inside as well. So, if you're in the mood for Notre Dame, and don't want to wait until the one in Paris is restored, I highly recommend going here to see this one. It's less crowded too ;).

Cathédrale Notre-Dame d'Amiens was built between 1220 and 1270, and it has been on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites since 1981. The stained glass has mostly been changed out since it's construction, but it has been beautifully done, so if you don't have a trained eye, you really wont be able to tell. It's a almost a miracle that the cathedral is in such great shape really - there was heavy fighting around the city in both World Wars I and II and many of the surrounding buildings were destroyed.

As you can see, this image if the result of stitching two shots together - I couldn't get the whole cathedral into my viewfinder the way I wanted it, so I thought I'd try merging instead. It's the first time I've attempted to do this sort of thing. Or well, I've done similar stuff, but I've never attempted to make the result look seamless before. It took me some time to figure things out and I tried a verity of methods to merge the photos together before I was satisfied enough to actually start doing the stuff I do to make things look prettier. I actually have a third shot as well - that is in the middle of the other two - but since the top and the bottom ones overlapped I though it'd be simpler to just merge the two of them. It was complicated enough as it was without adding a third one, and I haven't spent that much time on a singe image in a very long time. There are still some tiny distortions that annoy me, but you have to quit at some point. :)

/MrsHjort

Day 3 - Grote Markt

I promised to show you the view from the Martinikerk yesterday, and this is my favorite picture from up the clock tower. It's of the square called Grote Markt. I really like the architecture. I have always adored the older styles and I love to look at the variants of the countries I visit. Did you know that the reason why many buildings are so narrow in the Netherlands is because of the tax system that was used? You see, they taxed the buildings depending on how wide they were on the side facing the street, so building narrower houses was more economic. It turned out quite charming too - I they they're beautiful! Especially that tiny red facade in the middle :).

/MrsHjort

Day 2 - Martinikerk

Yesterday I was surprised to learn that a fellow Daggerian is from Groningen! I wish I had known before going. It would have been so lovely to meet her. We went there on a whim - booked a hotel the day before, packed our bags and went for it. I have always wanted to see the Netherlands and Groningen caught our eye - it's a city that is roughly the same size as my home town (not too big and not too small - the Goldilocks Zone of cities haha), it has pretty canals and those narrow buildings that are so typical of the country, and it also turned out it had really great places to eat.

Food is something we've really come to appreciate throughout our travels. Nowadays we travel as much for the food as for the sights. Sampling the local cuisine is a must, and Trip Adviser is a great way to find nice places. We arrived late in the evening (Hamburg... the traffic jam there added a couple of hours to our drive) and had the great fortune to find a nice place to eat just around the corner of our hotel. We tried to get a table at the top ranked restaurant at first - "De Betere Tijden" but it was full so we booked it for the next day instead. It turned out to be a great move! The food there was worthy of a trip in itself and it (and the prospect of getting to meet my photographer friend of course) easily makes me want to go back to the Groningen. We only stayed one day there after all, and since we were quite tired from our long drive the day before, we didn't have the time or energy to see much of Groningen.

One of the things we did do was to visit this beautiful church - Martinikerk - the oldest one in the city (completed in 1482). Well, we didn't actually visit the church per se; we went up the clock tower. It's almost a hundred meters high and you can climb all the way up to the clock face. I remember those narrow, winding and quite steep stairs with a dash or horror and a splash of pride. Horror, because I felt like I was going to fall down them and die if I lost my footing (yes, I know, I'm a bit of a sissy), and proud because I made it all the way up to the top (I'm chronically ill, so that was quite an accomplishment for me). The view from the top was beautiful! But I'll show you that tomorrow.

/MrsHjort

Day 66 - Villa Borghese gardens

As a person who loves to travel to see beautiful nature I couldn't leave Rome without seeing one of its parks. So, the last few pictures that I'm going to show you will be from the Villa Borghese gardens - Rome's third largest public park (80 ha).

Regarding the park's history, it all started in 1605 when pope's nephew, cardinal Scipione Borghese began turning a former vineyard into a garden. It became the most extensive one built in Rome since Antiquity but it took a long time before it was open formally and it wasn't until 1903 that the garden was bought by bought by the commune of Rome and given to the public.

/MrsHjort

Day 65 - Trinità dei Monti

This is the inside of the church that was in yesterday's shots (the one at the top of the Spanish steps, if you don't follow me regularly). It was built in 1585 and it's unknown who designed its facade, but it is believed that a follower of Michelangelo, Giacomo della Porta, who had designed a similar church was the mind behind this one too.

The inside of this church is a bit different to the other churches in Rome - it's more minimalist. While that is not a phrase I'd usually use to describe it, the contrast brought the word to mind. To put it simple there is less color and not as many lavish details - the ceiling for example is not painted, nor is it filled with geometric patterns, it's simply light gray with some tasteful white lines to underline its architectural shape. I didn't get the ceiling in the shots though. Like I say yesterday I had the wrong lens with me and the 55-300 mm lens couldn't provide the wide angle I needed to make stuff work the way I wanted them to.

The second shot is of the view just outside the church. Beautiful in the morning with the light blowing life into all the shapes of the buildings, and a blue sky to top it all off. I rather like the way those three domes interact in this shot, don't you? :)

/MrsHjort

Day 64 - Scalinata di Trinità dei Monti

This is, of course, the Spanish Steps, designed by the architects Francesco de Sanctis and Alessandro Specchi. In Italian they're called Scalinata di Trinità dei Monti meaning the steps to the church Trinità dei Monti. The building of the 174 steps were funded by the French diplomat Étienne Gueffier between 1723-1725, linking the Spanish embassy to the church, that was under the patronage of the Bourbon French kings at the time. They have been sung about in many songs, and they have appeared in both tv-series and movies, and no wonder - it's a beautiful place. They had even put a bunch of flowerpots in the middle of them when we were there to make them look even lovelier.

As you can see, we visited the steps on two different occasions - I had the wrong lens (too heavy zoom) with me the first time and the lighting wasn't entirely to my satisfaction either, so, since the place was not far from where we stayed, we popped by a second time to snap a few quick pictures. I much prefer the lighting in the pictures to the right (that were taken on that second visit) to the one on the left. The blue sky was lovely but not as interesting as the cloudy drama in the other shots that were taken later in the day when the stairs were sunny - if you go too early they will be shaded by the surrounding buildings. That's the stuff you figure out as you explore a city. It's a good thing to think about which direction the sites are facing and when the best time to shoot them should be.

/MrsHjort

Day 63 - Largo di Torre Argentina

Look closely, can you see it? I didn't at first. As we were on our way back to our B&B in Rome we came across these ancient ruins, which isn't unusual in the city, but as I was taking them in I noticed a tiny spot of fur at its center. The crazy cat lady that I am I immediately identified my favorite animal and smiled at its nonchalance as it was laying there in the middle of a historic place without a thought of its past. It was then that Mr went "hey there's another one!" And lo and behold, there it was, walking along an old wall, and another one, no three others sunbathing on a slab of stone...

It turned out we had unknowingly arrived at the Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary - the place in Rome where stray cats are taken to live in a safe environment. They are all fed and looked after by volunteers until they, hopefully, find new owners. The population is held in check as the cats are spayed and neutered, and the cats are also provided healthcare (if they need it). There is even a space for the elderly or handicapped to be safe and live their lives in peace. There are approximately 150 cats living in the shelter at any given time and about 125 cats find new homes every year.

It warmed my heart to find this place, and of course we made a small donation to the cause. It's nice to know that there is a place for our four-legged friends even in the busy streets of Rome.

/MrsHjort

Day 62 - Forum Romanum

We are nearing the end of my Rome series, sort of, there are still more than two weeks of photos that I want to edit but since I'll spend some time off work soon I want to take a break from this as well and maybe even build up a new batch of shots to edit as I come back later. Therefore I'll speed up my challenge and show you more than one shot a day, every day, until we reach the end.

Today's shots are from the Roman Forum. It's an ancient plaza that once was the very heart of the Roman empire as it was surrounded by several important government buildings, some as old as the 8th century BC. It was a place for speeches, elections, trials and even gladiatorial matches, but now only ruins are left. Sadly much of it was cannibalized and used as building materials as the place started to fall apart from exposure to nature in the 8th century AD. Later, as the interest in archaeology grew the pieces started finding their way back again though different means but there's no way of knowing how much is still missing. I was told there was even a great map that carved into stone once, but that too got broken apart, so who knows where all the pieces ended up... The forum will never be what it was, but as we learn more and more about it, history is reconstructed. Now it's a popular place to visit and a wonderful place to learn about the past.

/MrsHjort

Day 61 - Basilica di Santa Francesca Romana

The Santa Francesca Romana, an 8th century church, lies right next to the Roman Forum, not far from the Colosseum. According to legend both St. Peter and St. Paul prayed at the site where the church was built in order to challenge a man called Simon Magnus, who thought that his "pagan powers" were greater than those of the apostles. It is said that Simon levitated in front of them, but as the apostles prayed for their god to demonstrate his might Simon fell down dying. It is also said that the stones the apostles knelt on as they prayed are embedded in the church's south wall.

/MrsHjort

Day 58 and 59 - Colosseum

This is one of the places in Rome that doesn't really need an introduction - its reputation precedes it. The Colosseum, also known as Flavian Amphitheatre is, of course, one of Rome's most famous spots. In 2018 it was even the most popular tourist spot in the world! 7.4 million people visited it that year. That's more people than the population of some countries - an interesting thought, don't you think?

Anyway, now for some history. The Colosseum took much less time to build than I would have thought. Especially with many other Roman places in mind, like St Peter's Basilica, that took a humongous time to complete. If I got my facts right, it "only" took 8 years to complete. It was built between 72-80 AD, with modification being done up until 96 AD, which still makes it a relatively fast in my mind with its size in mind. In its day it could hold 80 000 spectators and it hosted quite a lot of different events; gladiatorial contests (of course), animal hunts, executions, re-enactments of famous battles, and dramas based on Classical mythology. It even hosted mock sea battles at times - they actually filled it up with water and had boats in it! That is something I didn't know before my trip, and I was very surprised to learn it. It really made my jaw drop to hear Mr (the history nut that he is) tell me about it, and I once again found myself very impressed by the skills of the old Romans. What a thing to conceive of, and make into reality.

/MrsHjort

Day 57 - Mix of Art

Despite being dedicated to Constantine I, Arco di Costantino incorporates decorative material from the time of the emperors Trajan (98–117), Hadrian (117–138) and Marcus Aurelius (161–180) making it a collage of sorts. Though the inscription certainly makes its point; "To the Emperor Caesar Flavius Constantinus, the greatest, pious, and blessed Augustus: because he, inspired by the divine, and by the greatness of his mind, has delivered the state from the tyrant and all of his followers at the same time, with his army and just force of arms, the Senate and People of Rome have dedicated this arch, decorated with triumphs."

/MrsHjort

Day 56 - Arco di Costantino

This triumphal arch - Arco di Costantino - can also be found near the Palatine Hill, just like Circus Maximus. It's actually right by the Colosseum, but I wanted the arch to be the star of this shot, so I turned my back on the stadium and shot the arch from between the two. Arco di Costantino is the largest of its kind in Rome, 21 meters high. It commemorates Constantine I's victory over Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312 AD.

/MrsHjort

Day 48 - Arch Angel

This is the statue on the very top of Castel Sant'Angelo that reminds us of the legend that gave the fort its name (I wrote about it a few days ago, find the story here). Interestingly there have been several versions of the statue throughout the ages. This one, made out of bronze, is from the 1700s. The one before it was made out of marble and there were other versions before that one. At one time it was wooden! I can't imagine that version lasting very long though. In fact the statue has been replaces at least six times since the time of the fort's construction. I wonder how much they resembled each other...

/MrsHort

Day 46 - Dangerous Beauty

Castel Sant'Angelo is not only a beauty in itself, it also has beautiful items displayed inside it. From painted walls and ceilings to furniture, as well as weapons and shields. This one caught my eye. All that detail on its surface is beautiful, but the implications of that spike are nasty. Hopefully it was only used by someone important who wanted to look pretty whilst walking along the battlements of the castle :)

/MrsHort

Day 43 - Layers of Time

Like I said a few days ago, Castel Sant'Angelo has had several functions throughout the ages, and these pictures show the different layers that were constructed and added as time went by.

The first stone was laid in 123 AD and the first version of the structure was finished in 139. Back then it had the function of Mausoleum for the Emperor Hadrian and his family. Notice the uneven brickwork in the bottom picture - that's the oldest part of the fort.

In the 14th century the popes started converting the place to a castle and that was also when the hidden passageway to the Vatican that I mentioned earlier was constructed. The well ordered brickwork is from this era.

The 16th century brought additions in the form of a chapel and a rich apartment for the pope to stay in if there was a siege - that's the pinkish section to the right in the top picture.

In the year of 1901 the castle/fortress was decommissioned and converted into the museum that it is today. But in the ways of construction the only trace you can find from the modern era in these pictures is the antenna on the roof in the top picture.

/MrsHjort

Day 38 - Castel Sant'Angelo

This castle is a place that many tourists miss out on - the reason being, most likely, a lack of time. It's not one of the big things that everybody has heard of, like the Trevi Fountain or the Colosseum, but it's a real jewel nonetheless. This shot is actually of it's back door. It's my favorite one of the shots I took from the outside.

Castel Sant'Angelo translated is "Castle of the Holy Angel" and the legend goes that the archangel Michael appeared on its top sheathing his sword to signify the end of the plague. It was originally built to be a mausoleum for the Roman Emperor Hadrian and his family but it was later used as as a prison, a fortress and a resident castle by the popes. There's even a tunnel linking the fortress to the Vatican. Passetto di Borgo, as it is called, is 800 m long and runs inside a large brick wall. Pope Clemens VII actually used it to escape when Charles VIII invaded the city in 1527.

/MrsHjort

Day 35 and 36 - Water and Stone

These pictures are, as some of you might have figured already, from Piazza Navona, right outside the Church I've been showing you pictures of the last few days. Here you'll find yet another Roman obelisk, but it didn't make into my choice photos because of background problems - I'm very picky with what pictures I keep and even more picky with the ones I choose to edit. That's the way you get, for bad or worse, when you've been an eager aspiring hobby photographer for... has it been seven years already!? Wow, where did the time go... Being picky is both great and not so great. It's great because it keeps you on your toes and makes you think about your shots in a way that makes you a better photographer, but it's not so great because you loose that spontaneous element of photography - the "point and shoot" without any preparation. So called snapshots really have their own charm and I like how they capture "real moments" rather than choreographed or planned ones, if that makes sense, but I digress.

Anyway, You'll find three fountains at this square and these are pictures of the largest of them - the Fountain of the Four Rivers by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. It displays four river gods and represents the four continents to where the papal authority has spread by depicting famous rivers - the Nile (Africa), Danube (Europe), Ganges (Asia) and Rio de la Plata (South America).

I'm beginning to find my footing with the gloomy pictures I think. A comment from my favorite sarge got me thinking a bit, and I tried something that I haven't done before in the middle picture. This is where it all gets a bit nerdy, but it occurred to me that the flat look you get out of photos shot on overcast days can be overcome through selective editing. So, I faked things a bit and edited the statue and the background differently from each other when it came to color. In real life, the color of the stone fountain and the church in the background is much more similar, but I wanted the statue to stand out more, so I edited it accordingly. It's still a gloomy picture, but I like it a lot more with the faked interplay of foreground and background. It may not be entirely honest... but then most photos aren't. From mobile photo filters to "Photoshopping"... everybody likes to enhance their shots :)

/MrsHjort

Day 34 - Gloomy Sky

So, like I said yesterday this is Sant'Agnese in Agone, a 17th century church built in baroque style devoted to st. Agnes. The story goes that she was a Roman noble with many suitors, but she was devout and turned them all down. They submitted her name to the Christian authorities. She was put to death and suffered martyrdom at the age of 12. The church is now built at the site where she died and named for the agony she was put through before they beheaded her. You can even find her remains inside - her scull can be found at her shrine.

To move on to a completely different subject, the weather wasn't cooperating with me outside the church. This picture is a perfect example of why I don't like shooting in gloomy weather. All color just goes bye bye and no matter how you tweak it, you can never make it look happy and bright - which is what I like my photos to be. Gloom is my Achilles' heel. I've never really known what to do with it. So, if you have any suggestions on how to make shots like this pop in post-ed, I'm all ears and grateful for every tip.

/MrsHjort