Tag Archives: bologna

Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Bike Rack and Wall

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Bike Rack and Wall
A bike rack in front of a wall covered with graffiti and street art, Bologna.

Bike Rack and Wall. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

A bike rack in front of a wall covered with graffiti and street art, Bologna.

This photograph comes from a less-traveled (at least by tourists) back street in Bologna, Italy, in a neighborhood of narrow streets and walkways that seems like it might be where some of the locals actually live. There was, indeed, more street art and graffiti in this neighborhood, though this is perhaps an extreme example.

Several things drew me to this scene. Oddly, one of them was the connection between the light here and light that I have photographed in the narrow sandstone canyons of the American Southwest, where light bounces back and forth between reddish walls and acquires a warm softness. But the rest of the scene is, obviously, nothing like those natural landscape. a phalanx of bicycles crowds a wide rack, and the wall behind and above is plastered with a wild array of posters and graffiti.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Street Art, Bologna

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Street Art, Bologna
Weathered layers of street art and graffiti on a Bologna wall.

Street Art, Bologna. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Weathered layers of street art and graffiti on a Bologna wall.

Recently I have noticed that American visitors to Europe are surprised by the amount of graffiti (aka “street art”) in some cities. There is a lot of it, but I’m not sure if there is more of it than in the US. Perhaps they/we just end up in places where it is found more often when traveling, or maybe we are so used to it at home that we no longer “see” it. Another possibility: In the US I think there are efforts to control graffiti in places that tourists go, but in at least some parts of Europe that seems to be less the case. (This is not to suggest that graffiti isn’t a problem, as some recent stories about cretins writing and carving on antiquities has shown.)

One of the European cities where I first started to notice this is Bologna, Italy. Almost a decade ago we spent one night there during a drive from Germany to Tuscany — and I have this strong memory of walking through unlit streets with tons of graffiti at dusk. (After our recent trip, when walks in the same area at the same time of day included quite a few people, I’m beginning to distrust that early memory.) This photograph comes from a side-street in Bologna, where it was one of many examples. This one fascinated me, with its top layer of glued-on paper deteriorating to reveal layers of earlier marks and its interesting palette of colors.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Bar Vittorio Emanuele

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Bar Vittorio Emanuele
People gathering in Bologna on a warm summer evening

Bar Vittorio Emanuele. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

People gathering in Bologna on a warm summer evening.

A few years back we drove from Heidelberg to Florence and then into the Tuscany hills where we stayed for more than a week. The drive took a few days, with the first night spent in Munich and the second in Bologna. (Florence wasn’t that much farther than Bologna, but we wanted to visit.) Our arrival was a very strange and even uncomfortable experience. We came into town in the evening, finding the area we were in mostly deserted. We eventually found a place to leave our car and set out to find our “hotel” rooms. That was a strange and complicated story that would take to long to describe here.

We finally got our rooms and decided to head out. It was now dark, there were no street lights in the area, walls were covered profusely with graffiti, it was hot (as expected), and there seemed to be no one else outside. We finally found an open restaurant, got a table, and ate at the nearly deserted place, wondering what we’d gotten into. Then, a bit after 9:30PM, we started to see people. Over the next hour the crowds increased in size and by 10:00PM or so there were lots of people out and about, eating, drinking, hanging out… and enjoying the cooler evening temperatures.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Italy

Sidewalk Cafe, Near Midnight

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Sidewalk Cafe, Near Midnight
A Bologna, Italy sidewalk cafe a few minutes before midnight on a warm summer evening.

Sidewalk Cafe, Near Midnight. Bologna, Italy. August 18, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A Bologna, Italy sidewalk cafe a few minutes before midnight on a warm summer evening.

Our August trip took us from Germany, where we spent five days in Heidelberg, south toward Italy. We drove, stopping for the first night in Munich, and then continuing on the Bologna for a night. Because we got a late start from Munich we didn’t arrive in Bologna until around sunset. We made our way to our (somewhat unusual — but a story for another time) hotel, got settled, and then decided it was time to find some dinner and look around a bit.

So we emerged from our abode onto a darkened street and soon realized that Bologna was, at least at this time on this evening, nothing at all like the northern European places we had come from. (An experienced ex-pat with how we traveled explained that Bologna isn’t exactly on the same travel map as a lot of other Italian cities.) The streets were dark, as most of the meager street lights had not yet come on. The area we were in seemed to have no vegetation at all. The streets were virtually deserted. I said that it had a kind of post-apocalyptic feeling. We found a nice restaurant (on another virtually deserted street) and sat down almost alone to have dinner. The experienced member of our group said to wait a bit, that at 9:00 or so it was still too early for many people, and that big groups would soon appear, trying to get out after the heat of the day. He was right. Soon others came to the restaurant, and when we visited a nearby square after eating we found lots of people, including this group at a cafe, just a few minutes before midnight.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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