PJ's Studio: Italy

Showing posts with label Italy. Show all posts

Sunday, August 3, 2025

Rome digital collage

This month’s digital collage features this photograph from Rome, which I took on my visit in 1997.

There’s actually an interesting story about it. I liked it so much, that I bought the negative into a photo store to have it blown up to 20” x 30” for my walls at work. Yes, it was pre-digital.

When I returned to pick up the enlargement, I was horrified to find that they had given me someone else’s photo. Presumably they had not lost my negative, but merely had sent it and my photo to whomever owned the one I was looking at.

The people at the store asked me what the subject of the photo was so they could attempt to retrieve it. I told them that it was a photograph of “The Roman Forum.”

Several days later, I received a phone call asking me if the missing photo was of “three columns.” I responded yes. But I also realized then that not everyone knows what the Roman Forum looks like. Go figure. 😉

When I began teaching/training, I used the story to illustrate the fact that communication doesn’t work if your audience has no idea what you are taking about.

I combined the photo with this drawing of olive oil and cherries for the final collage.

Here are links to previous collages…

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2025/02/tulum.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2025/03/venice.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2025/05/spain-collage.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2025/07/salzburg-digital-collage.html

Cheers!

Sunday, January 12, 2025

Florence 3 : Golf Cart Ban Alert

Following on the heels of Venice’s decision to charge a daily people fee comes the news that Florence is banning golf carts and other atypical vehicles.

They are also banning loudspeakers and amplifiers.

And, key boxes used by short-term rentals.

Apparently, they had no choice.

7.8 million people visited Florence in the first nine months of 2024.

Tourist use is concentrated in just 5 square kilos (2 square miles.) And it is so crowded that people can barely walk through the streets.

Luckily for us, when we visited in 1997 the only crowds were the ones the bride and her bridal party attracted in the square.

Of course, there was a line for the Bargello – but who could resist the chance to check out Donatello’s David – a groundbreaking example of early Renaissance art.

Made of bronze in the 1440’s, it is the first freestanding nude male sculpture created since Greco-Roman times.