Tag Archives: eu

Early Evening, Florence

Image August 31, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early evening view of Florence, Italy from the Piazzale Michangelo.

This might be one of the best-known viewpoints in Florence, the Piazzale Michangelo. From this high terrace you look down and across the Arno River toward the old central city and beyond. If you know about the city you probably recognize at least a couple of landmarks in the photograph.

This photograph and the evening on which I made it might be a good reminder that the advice you sometimes hear about staying away from the most famous places isn’t always valid. I deal with this a lot in my landscape photography – I often love to go to somewhat anonymous, out-of-the way places, but I think the first-time visitors are often best off by starting with the well-known places. Knowing that this spot is so famous and seeing so many people heading that way, I might have decided not to join the throngs… but it turned out that the evening was beautiful and the throng was a big part of the fun!

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: Night, Photographs: Portugal, Photographs: Urban/Street

La Tranquera

Image August 30, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

We spend two nights in Cordoba, Spain. We did not want to miss the famous mosque-cathedral, and we also wanted to include a few places that were not Madrid or Barcelona on our itinerary in the country. In terms of the weather, our timing might have been better — in this often-hot place we had temperatures of up to 111 F. That’s too hot! The Spanish practice of knocking off for the afternoon and coming back out in the evening made a whole lot of sense.

On this evening, if I remember correctly, we had been out for a late dinner and were taking a somewhat indirect route back to our hotel. It seemed like every little restaurant and bar was open, and lots of people were in the streets.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Travel

Doorway, Two Olive Trees

Image August 29, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

This summer’s European travel was fairly lengthy — our plan had on on the road for just under ten weeks. We spend the majority of our time in Portugal, Spain, and Italy, but with shorter stays in a few other places near the beginning and end. On a short trip it is possible to just “go, go, go” for days on end, but on a longer trip there really needs to be at least a bit of downtime — which explains our stop in the Italian town of Arezzo.

While Arezzo is perhaps not on most itineraries, it was a very pleasant place to spend a few slower days. In addition, it surprised us with some interesting things that we didn’t expect, including very old fortifications along the upper reaches of the town, with beautiful views of the countryside. There is also a big cathedral in this same area that surprised us with its beauty, though it is more subdued that some of the cathedrals that are more popular tourist destinations. I photographed this pair of potted olive trees and a door nearby.

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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Travel

Doorway, Steps, Morning Light

Image August 28, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light on a weathered doorway, steps, and a small plant — Orvieto, Italy.

Since I wrote earlier about our stop in Orvieto, Italy I will keep the background brief on this post. Orvieto is a lovely “hill town” in Umbria. The old walled city occupies the relatively flat top of a hill surrounded by steep slopes. It is a popular day-trip destination, though we stayed there a few days and enjoyed evenings and mornings without crowds.

As a very old town, it is a cit of very narrow and winding streets. (The “small bus” ride to our lodgings from the funicular was… something.) The whole place is eminently walkable, and we took advantage of that throughout our visit, wandering to places that we knew we were supposed to visit (including the impressive duomo) and walking randomly up and down whatever streets looked interesting.