Travelogue : Rome, Italy

There are not many cities on par with Rome - the Eternal city. As the old saying goes "all roads lead to Rome", on each of these roads, no matter whichever way you turn you either see a ancient monuments, lavish fountains and huge crowd of tourists. While seeing the city its pretty easy to imagine what it must have been during the age of the Ceasars and Roman gladiators. Travelling around in Rome is pretty practical, a day ticket of 4 euros in the Metro is also valid in the City buses and one can cover all over the city using this ticket.

One can start from one end of the city and traverse across to the other end. There are innumerable monuments and places to see around Rome that it is almost difficult to see it all in one or 2 days. In my case I started from the North East section of the City (since my Hotel was close in there). Easily reachable by the Metro Stations of Barberini and Spagna on Line A, this area of Rome has among popular attractions Piazza di Spagna and Spanish Steps, Fontana di Trevi, Santa Maria della Vittoria etc. The Piazza di Spagna and the Spanish Steps have been a major touristic center of Rome since the early 19th century. Shaped like a bow and lined up by muted shuttered facades, this Piazza is crowded all day and (in summer) most of the night. The Trevi Fountain is the famous and larget fountain of Rome. Its central statue is the Neptune along with two Tritons on either side. It was originally built to serve as an aqua duct for the ancient Rome. It attracts huge number of tourists during day and night, who flock here to throw a coin into the water and make a wish. Huge gallons of water flowing create a sound which gives the whole place a surreal atmosphere. Santa Maria Maggiore is pretty close to the Termini Stazione and has a great blend of architectural styles ranging from early Christian and Baroque era. The Piazza della Republica is also a great attraction, especially in the night which serves an excellent shot for night photography.


The Vatican City, world capital of Catholicism, for sure is the reason why most of the tourists come to Rome. To enter the Vatican one has to wake up early and join thousands in the queue lined up to enter the Museum and the Cathedral. In my opinion its better to see the Bassilica first, if you arrive there around 0700 you can easily enter the St. Peter´s Basilica without any queue. While entering the St. Peter´s you are awestruck by the large number of detailed statues which overlook the square. The early morning sunrays also give an amazing shot of the Papal Altar and the Baldacchino for the avid photographers like me. Most of the great architects of the Baroque and Rennaisance era were involved in the design of the Basilica of St. Peter´s. The famous dome of Christendom was designed by Michelangelo. Once you have finished seeing the Cathedral, you have to join the long queue to enter the Museum and the Sistine Chapel. While standing in the queue you will have infinite time to have your breakfast and practice sleepwalking. The Vatican Museum has one of the oldest art collections apart from the Sistine Chapel and Raphael Rooms. The art galleries are divided into sections of Egyptian & Assyrian art, Greek & Roman art, Etruscan, medivial art and 15th - 19th century art. Raphael Rooms were actually Pope Julius II private apartments who had chosen Raphael to decorate the walls and cielings with his artwork. The Sistine Chapel displays the Fresco work done by Michelangelo. The paintings and graphics depict majorly Old and New Testaments like for example the Original Sin, the Creation of the Sun and Moon etc. As one strolls through the chambers s/he will seldom close his/her mouth as each one is as jaw-dropping as the earlier one. Arguably it is the most enthralling visits of Rome. The Castel Sant Angelo is another major attraction across the Vatican, and offers a good view of the Vatican for photographers from Ponte Sant Angelo. I took this night shot from there. To reach the Vatican one can take the Metro A till the Ottaviano stop.


After crossing the river Tevere, you come across the Piazza Navona. The major attraction of the square is the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi. This magnificient fountain was done by Bernini and shows the statues of four great rivers (Nile, Plate, Danube and Ganges). The Piazza is a major social center of the city and has plenty of restaurants lined up all around punctuated by Baroque fountains. This fountain also appears prominently in the plot of the novel Angels & Deamons written by Dan Brown. A couple of blocks away is the Piazza della Rotonda along with the Pantheon. The Pantheon is the Roman "temple of all gods", is the most extraordinary and best preserved monument of the ancient Rome. Other major attractions in the vicinity are the Piazza della Minerva and Sant´Ignazio di Loyola.

The ancient center of the city has plenty of attractions. The Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele is an imposing white marble building beside the Roman Forum. It attracts a large number of tourists and has a museum with a free entry. This photogenic monument looks awesome in the night. It was built in honor of Victor Emanuele II the first king of unified Italy. Just behind this monument is the Roman Forum and its ruins of the ancient era.One can stroll through these ruins for free, which have been preserved amazingly over all these ages. Further ahead of the Roman Forum is the Colosseum, one of the most imposing monuments of ancient Rome.

The Colosseum was as amphitheater built on the orders of Emporer Vespasian. Several gladiators had fought beasts and other wild animals in the arena of this gigantic building. Walking inside the corridors is fascinating if you imagine what it must have been in the bygone era in all its glory, complete with thousands of Romans and one Julius Ceasar. Now you find many of the dressed up gladiators eagerly waiting for tourists to take snaps and make some money. Nearby are the ruins of the Palatine, which was once the residence of emperors and aristocrats. The ruins range from a simple house in which Augustus is assumed to have lived, to the Domus Flavia and Domus Augustana. From certain high altitudes of the Palatine one can take panoramic shots of the Roman skyline. Close to the Colosseum is the Metro stazione to connect you quickly with other major attractions of the city.

Eating is pretty decent in the several restaurants of the city, but if you want to save some quick bucks, you could do shopping in the several markets around the city, prominent among them are the ones aroung Campo di Fiori.

To see some more snaps I had taken in Rome visit my Gallery on Flickr and Webshots

Travelogue : Florence, Italy

The historical section of Florence is a compact area, with all the major tourist attractions in close vicinity of each other.Though the city is easily navigable by foot, one can even rent bicycles right from the Stazione for an hourly rate of 4 euros (tourists) or 1 euro (residents of Florence). Those who study arts and literature, for them visiting Florence is like taking a pilgrimage to see the artistic capital of the world. Writers such as Dante and Machiavelli, Painters and Sculptors like Michelangelo and Donatello have contributed to the reputated artwork on display in Florence.


Once could start touring from the Piazza San Marco, where the Convento di San Marco and Galleria dell´Accademia are start attractions. The Academy of Fine Arts was established in the 16th century to teach drawing, painting and sculpture techniques. The most famous work on display here is the Statue of David done by Michelangelo, however a copy of it is also on display at the Piazza della Signoria. The Palazzo Vecchio along with the Piazza della Signoria have been the heart of political life in Florence. There are several statues of the ancient Roman are on display at this square, including the Fontana di Nettuno. The Ponte Vecchio which is a couple of blocks from this Piazza is the oldest surviving bridge in the city. This bridge is a popular photographic attraction among the tourists who also flock at the several shops dealing with specialized jewellry and antique shops.


The most symbolic monument of Florence is the Duomo of Santa Maria del Fiore and naturally you find tonnes of tourists lining up to enter in each of the major attractions around the Piazza di San Giovanni. The interior of the orange-tiled dome is designed by Brunellschi, it also has frescoes of the Last Judgement. Colorful Neo-Gothic marble facade adorn the walls of the Chapel and Baptistry. The Baptistry also has colorful mosaics illustrating the Last Jusdgement decorating its cielings. When visiting Florence on a short time scale, bear in mind that most of these major buildings have strict visiting timings for tourists and plan your timings accordingly!


for more snaps from I took at Florence check out : Flickr and Webshots

Travelogue : Venice, Italy

This was my 3rd trip to Venice - the Gateway to the Orient. My earlier visits were on the Christmas day last year and once during the Venice Carnival in early spring this year. Yes I have been smitten by this city, as it has always captivated my fantasy since childhood, to see such beautiful buildings standing on water since so many ages. Venice was on my travel itinery of a brief Italian holiday along with some of my friends from Germany who had come come visiting me over this long weekend of Ferrogosto.


Each of my experiences of Venice have been different. The previous one was mainly the carnival festive mood in February. Exploring Venice is like going on a game of treasure hunt because of the narrow streets and bridges you come across. One can walk to most of the places of the city but to go to any of the islands you do have to take the motorboats. The only way to enter Venice from mainland Mestre is through the causeway leading to Piazzale Roma. The trains arrive at the Santa Lucia Stazione facing the Grand Canal. Travelling on a Vaporetto or the motor boat across the Grand Canal is the best way to view Venice. Almost all of the star attractions of the city are along this canal. Facing the Stazione is the domed church of San Simeone Piccolo which resembles the Pantheon of Rome. As the boat wades through the Grand Canal going towards the Rialto you see the Fondaco dei Turchi, a warehouse of Turkish traders in the past, but now houses the Natural History Museum. The Rialto Bridge spans the canal in the commercial heart of the city. Locals and tourists flock around the several food, vegetables and fish markets. Its a good place to watch and photograph the gondolas in the canal below. As you move further you come across the Ponte dell´Accademia (which hosts a large collection of Venetian paintings) and the Santa Maria della Salute just at the mouth of the Grand Canal. This huge Baroque church is supported by over a million timber piles.


The Piazza San Marco is the centerstage of action during the Carnival or as a matter of fact any event hosted in Venice. At the square you have the San Marco Bassilica and towards its side the Palazzo Ducale. The Basilica blends the architectural styles of East and West to create one of the popular buildings of Europe. The Facade Mosaics inside the dome are a popular attraction amongs tourists. The Palazzo Ducale was home to each of the Venetian rulers and its external appearance displays the art of the 14th century. I was lucky enough to see the high tide of the Mediterrainean, during which the water floods onto the square of San Marco. It occurs frequently during the months of August and September, I was told. When I was there, the water was upto my ankle level.


Venice is famous for its glassworks, and its island of Murano is the home to most of the glass factories. The Museo Vetrario has a large collection of antique pieces. Easy reachable from the mainland Venice on boat numbers 5, 41 and 42, Murano should be a must see list for all tourists coming to Venice. Burano is the most of the colorful islands of Venice, is famous for its lacework industry. A day ticket of about 12 euros allows you to use the vaporettos around the Grand Canal and also to any of the islands.


for images of Venice I had taken visit my gallery on Flickr and Webshots

Travelogue : Milano, Italy

Last friday I had to go to Polytechnico Milano for a project Seminar. This was the first time for me to visit Milano. After the talk, me and my colleague could visit the city, but that particular day was not optimum for visiting any place. The temperature was soaring, the sun was scorching hot. All one could do is be at a lake or beside a fountain sipping some drink.

We spent some time at the Duomo in the center of the city. The Duomo is one of the largest Catholic Cathedrals of Europe. But unfortunately the frontal view was draped in banners as the musical group Sting were scheduled to give a performance that evening at the city square. I took some snaps around the place. I was impressed by the glass cieling work of the neighbouring promenade. We went around some of the shopping malls. There were tourists everywhere. The fashion capital of Europe, Milan attracts shoppers from worldwide. The home city of D&G, Prada and Giorgio Armani does a buisness of 7 million euros on a daily basis through shopping alone. We also saw the huge store of La Regnisance which is in the vicinity of the Duomo. Tired and beaten by the sun, we could not venture out much into the city and took the earliest train back home.

I have uploaded some of my snaps here

http://community.webshots.com/myphotos?action=viewAllPhotos&albumID=551628689&security=bvXrMt

if interested you could read some more history of the duomo here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duomo_di_Milano

Travelogue : Pisa, Italy

On my way back from the Summer School in S. Vincenzo, our group of friends had decided to visit Pisa which was on the way back. After seeing around Pisa all of us would take different routes to go back home. Well we had a small walk down the city, passing through some lanes and streets. Crossing the river of Arno. A little before the Campo dei Miracoli, there was a small festival in the town. Plenty of shops were up for display and sales. There were hawkers selling olives (several varieties - I was amazed to see some of them), Capperi, Clothes, Sweets and Confectioneries, pets (parrots, love birds, turtles, squirrels). The crowd was full of tourists - Americans forming a majority again, some Germans, Chinese, Japenese, I overheard some Russian also, later I also saw some Asians as well - old, young and kids in the pram. The Campo dei Miracoli is the only thing worth seeing in Pisa and its so small that I wondered that people spent so much money to see such a thing which could be as large as the Giant Football Stadiums Germany had made for the World Cup. We took our regular snaps at the leaning tower, then walked around the Cathedral and the Jewish Cemetry. The 3rd significant building you see in the Piazza is the Monastry. The entry to the tower was a little expensive, and due to time constraints, we decided against it. We saw the cathedral from the inside. Photography was allowed, but I was surprised that one could not a tripod in there.

as usual the links to some of my snaps is here

Travelogue : San Vincenzo, Tuscany, Italy

Last week I had gone to San Vincenzo last week to attend a Summer School on Multimedia Digital Libraries. San Vincenzo is a small tourist town in the region of Tuscany, about 50 Km from Pisa on the West coast of Italy. I guess its a popular destination among family tourists, as all through the week I could see a large number of kids and grand parents. The majority of holiday makers were from Germany. If you want to take a break along with your family on a quite beach, with some decent hotels and serenity in the neighbourhood, then San Vincenzo is the place to be. Among the hotels in the city, I guess Hotel Delphino is recommendable, as it is close to the city center, has a good view of the beach and the room prices are pretty good. The region of Tuscany is famous for its Red Wine and Olives. The food of also very good with the restaurants serving some very good delicacies. I suggest Serendipity and La Paradisino for some good evening dinner with the gusts of the Meditterrainean blowing on your face.

I have uploaded some of the snaps I took during my stay there at this link

Diary Archives : Christmas in Venice

I have this habit of writing down my thoughts, and experiances in my notebook. Some people term it as maintaining a diary. There are different styles and approaches to write a diary. I dont have the motivation to write a daily page/paragraph, but normally on sunday afternoons, I try to have some retrospection of the week passed and make a note of my observations. I thought of sharing some of the excerpts from my notes on this space, under the tag of Diary Archives.

26-12-2005

As the Christmas weekend drew close, almost everyone in the University was leaving home for the holidays. The University started to wear a very lonely look, all the labs were empty, except for a few desks which were occupied by the Asian students. Most the Asians had not gone home or holiday else where - not because that we dont like to holiday, but because its damn too expensive to make a trip back home and going for such a short period of 2 weeks makes no sense to me. Well, some of us had plans of short holidays to Rome, Venice, Milan etc. Rome is a little far down south from Trento and it also requires some planning in advance with bookings etc, so some of us decided to visit Venice, which is around 170 Kms east to Trento. It could all be done in a day, leave early morning, see around during the day and come back in the evening. So,it was a group of three of us - Haroon from Karachi, Sridhar from Kathmandu, and me. Haroon is an MS student and Sridhar is doing Phd in economics and is my hostel mate. our SAARC group as we named it had to meet on the Trento Stazione and take the train for Venice at 0806 AM. we could have started much earlier, but Haroon could not make it to the station so early in the morning since he stayed at a reasonable distance and needed to take a bus to reach downtown.

The return ticket cost us € 12.50 each, pretty reasonable price I felt. As the train chugged along, we bid the familiar Alps in Trento bye. I am a little bored seeing the same peaks surrounding me daily, and was hoping to see some refreshing landscapes of the plains soon. But to my surprise, the Alps extend a lot more into the south, ofcourse these are the lower ranges slowly fading into the plains. After some initial talking, we had some sandwiches and I then started to continue reading my novel. These days I am into the DaVinci Code (Dan Brown), still in the first half of the book. The duration of the journey was 3:30 Hrs, its a little lengthy since the train is run on Diesel and almost half the distance is on a Mountainous terrain, so it cannot catch up on speed. After some reading I was about to doze, and asked Sridhar to wake me when we reach the plains. Well the plains did look refreshing at the first glance. They reminded me of the landscapes in Germany when you travel between the large cities. I was recollecting my travelling experiances in Deutschland, the InterCity (IC), the Regional Bahn, etc. Those days looked so distant in past, how quickly time flies. And how relative Time is! At the same instant I was feeling bored and feeling that this train is taking eternity to reach Venice, and also thinking how quickly my years in Germany had passed. Many images of Darmstadt, Frankfurt, Munich etc were flashing in my mind then. Before my eyes on the outside were large farms spread out. The land was brown, with no farming activity in motion. Once in a while a farm house would passby. The farm houses were beautiful, with some garden space, some dogs, ducks, kennels, and haystocks, etc. These farmhouses had large iron gates at their entrances, which reminded me of the similar gates we have in sub-continent houses.

Around 1115 AM we reached the Venice region, the first station which is in the mainland Venice passed by. This is where one needs to board off to go to the Venice Airport. As the train moved on and we moved closer to the Mediterrenian, I was getting some excitement jitters. The first time I had read about Venice was in class 4, and had wondered then, that how could a city exist on water. Flashes of Shakespeare´s Merchant of Venice were running around in my mind. I was about to see the city of Antonio, Bassonio et al. I remember playing the part of the judge in school and judge about that pound of flesh drama. One of my favourite movies, the Italian Job was shot in Venice and so was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I was very eager to see all those locations where the movies were shot. I was going to lay my foot on the city which is so famous in history. Marco Polo, Antonio Vivaldi, Giacomo Casanova were all from Venice. I had read so much about this city, that I could hardly sit down at my seat when I first saw the Mediterranian Sea. The last stop of the train was venice-St. Lucia, which is one of the largest islands of Venice. The train crossed the bridges over the sea and stopped on the St. Lucia terminal.

The weather was not very pleasant, nor was it gloomy either. The sky was not clear blue, with some haziness present. But now and then there was some sunlight, otherwise it was a typical grey winter day. The temperature was around 6 degrees. As we made our exit from the St. Lucia Stazione, the first surprise you meet as you come out of the station is, there is no large street filled with taxis, buses and pavements, instead you see the Grand Canale - the largest of the lagoons of Venice. Yes, its just water, water and more water everywhere you look. ofcourse on the other side of the canale are shops, buildings etc. The city is just like every other, except that black roads and streets are replaced by blue water, canals, bridges, boats etc. Venice is essentially the worlds largest pedestrian zone and with the absence of motorized vehicles there is no threat to keep people on their toes. As a result there is a ridiculous amount of random stopping, turning, and chatting causing blockage after blockage of frustrated pedestrians. Venice is Europe's largest car-free area, unique in Europe in remaining a sizable functioning city in the 21st century entirely without motorcars or trucks.

Venice is famous for its canals. It is built on an archipelago of more than 100 islands in a shallow lagoon. In the old center, the canals serve the function of roads, and every form of transport is on water or on foot. The classical Venetian boat is the Gondola, although it is now mostly used for tourists, or for weddings, funerals, or other ceremonies, due to its cost. Most Venetians travel by motorised waterbuses ("vaporetti") which ply regular routes along the major canals and between the city's islands. The city also has many private boats. The only unmotorized gondolas still in common use by Venetians are the traghetti, foot passenger ferries crossing the Grand Canal at certain points without bridges.





We bought a day-ticket for 10 euros, and took our 'bus' to the Piazza San Marco. Its a journey of about 30 mins. As the boat wades through the canal, you can see all the marvellous buildings on the either side. The magic of the oriental architectures, century old marvels of construction who have stood the test of time keep you spell-bound. I do not have a digi-cam at the moment, so my fingers were twitching like hell. There were many I-wish-I-had-a-camera moments all around me as the Bus (boat) floated around. Some of the beautiful scenes were when you are coming out from under a bridge, the sky slowly opens up above you and you see the famous Venice Skyline. I bet all directors shooting in Venice must have taken a shot or two in this manner.

Eventually we arrived at the grand attraction of Venice: Piazza San Marco and Basillica di San Marco. I can see why people flock here. The Basillica is ornate on an unsurpassed level and the grand square is a great place to watch people run screaming towards the thousands of pigeons waiting to be fed. The endless colonnades of the Procuratie Vecchie and Procuratie Nuove add a feeling of antiquity to the site giving it an exquisite Italian/Ancient Roman feel. We also fed the pigeons, and took some snaps with Sridhar´s camera. The pigeons reminded me about the Trafalgar Square in London - you stand still with your arms stretched and soon you will find yourself covered with pigeons. Well you have to keep looking your coat for any droppings of these thankful pigeons!

If you walk a little south from the Basillica, you come across the bridge where the chase sequence was shot for the Italian job. The particular scene when the group manages to steal the gold and flee under water, while their partners give the police a wild chase was shot here. I spent some minutes visualising how it was all done, the camera positions, etc. I could have continued a little longer, but Sridhar and Haroon would not let me. While walking around the city later we also saw that old building which was used as the Library in the Indiana Jones movie.

By this time, we were hungry and so made our way to the immediate pizzeria in our vicinity. We had a meal with a Quarter Pizza, Fries and a drink - costed around 6 euros. The guy serving was a Bengali. Haroon was complaining that "yaar itnay desi hai yaha, jaha dekha waha desi". I replied "haan yaar, subah utho, mirror mein dekho waha bhi desi!". Apart from numerous desis (sub-continent people), there were plenty of Chinese and Japs everywhere. I wonder what the Italians would say when they see so many Chinese, Japs and Asians. When you observe the tourists around you, you can see all the popular gadgets in use - digicams, handycams, camera-phones, etc etc. Some of them are real pros into photography. They take great pains to get that perfect shot. I felt jealous seeing those great lenses around me. We had good fun looking at people making some interesting poses. Well one thing worth observation was the use of Video messaging and Video conferencing by many tourists. They had some 3G phones from Motorola, Nokia and were doing live video streaming - UMTS is slowly finding its base among users, a good sign for someone like me.

Venice is one of the places on earth which exudes romance. All around me where tourists with their better halves, their special someones and were busy kissing away. I was feeling a bit lonely, and the heart was yearning for that someone to be beside me at this special place. Maybe a Raaj Aaryan would imagine his Aishwarya and sing a song, but this is no movie scene. I wish she was here! hmmm - deep sigh! To add misery I had the company of two guys!

Human traffic comes to a complete stand still just outside of Rialto Bridge. A classic destination which overlooks one of the more Venice-esque photo ops and which is also lined with a million kiosks filled with everything from miniature toy gondolas to Dantes didgeridoos. The ambience around it is very similar to the one you find in descriptions of the markets during the British-era of India. To be more vivid, more like the movie shots from the sets of Pakeezah movie, or similar to the bazaars of Old Delhi, Aligarh or Lucknow. The most prevalent and artistic items for sale were the masks from Carnival. These intricate and hand-made masks are truly works of art! If you have read the novel - Kiss the girls, there were many masks which fit the descriptions to the one used by Casanova in that novel (which was later made into a Hollywood movie, starring Morgan Freeman and Jodie Foster). There were many glasswork articles as well. One of the islands of Venice, Murano is famous for its glass workshops. The craftmanship of these is just amazing, just amazing. I could not buy them however owing to the price, unless you have someone special with you, it makes no sense to spend on buying something so beautiful and costly.

As we were strolling in the by-lanes, it was as if we had ventured into a maze, that is the size of a city - Venice. It is an interesting city, if you want to see around on foot. As you round a corner you never know what will be there; it could be a church, a canal or more likely an impenetrable wall of people. Since it was Chirstmas day, there were not 'many' tourists in the city. Still you would find people all around you. more Chinese and Japs to be precise. Infact when we did not see any of them around we were wondering if this particular corner is worth seeing or not. Being a Christmas day, the churches were elaborately decorated, and by evening wore on, we could see arrangements for the Concerts being made. Ofcourse we had no time to listen to any of them, but it was great to see the arrangements with bells, lights, and cones.

It had already become dark long ago. On our way back to the Stazione, we had good fun. We had lost our way and we were stuck somewhere in the maze of the city and its bylanes. We decided to go by the Audience poll option (KBC style), and follow the streams of the people such that we could somehow come across the Grand Canale, from there we could take the boats to the Station. But as we took our paths through the narrow shadowy lanes, by-lanes, narrow corridors, small bridges, it was as if we are doing some Treasure Hunt Game. Occasionally when we come across a sign stating 'Alle Ferrovia' meaning all ways lead to the main station, we would be happy that we are on right path. At any bifurcation, we would decide by following the direction taken by any pretty girls. At that time we saw Venice up-close. We saw all the possible faces of this city, its various lanes, city squares with fountains, there were many of those I-wish-I-had-my-camera moments as we walked along. We were also chatting that incase we had something like this in our countries what would we do. Haroon came up with a doubt about where could we play cricket with such narrow lanes and water everywhere. I was wondering how the day-to-day life went by here. How were the marriage ceremonies held, how were funeral processions carried out. Yes life is different here in 'Venice - the City of Lagoons'. Then came up an interesting conversation, we were thinking 'what-if I lived in Venice and owned a boat, what would I name it?' well we came up with many crazy names. My craziest one was 'Dhanno'.

After reaching the Stazione, we had some dinner - again a pizza with drink. Then we boarded our train back to Trento. As soon as we took our seats, I reached out for my notebook and made a note of all the key observations I had made during the day, so that I dont miss out on anything. We had some good sleep on our way back, with many memories being made in our minds about what we had seen during the day. I am pretty sure of returning back to Venice, hopefully with that special someone.

a bright sunny spring day .......

Today is one of those exceptionally beautiful, warm and sunny days you have in the first weeks of Spring. Trento, looks even more beautiful in this weather. While taking the bus ride upto the Uni campus, one could see the white puffy clouds circling around the mid-rifs of the moutains including the Vigolana, the Monte Bondone, the Paganella, the Marzola et al.

Its not a typical working day, so a group of friends went out for lunch in the Pizzeria behind the campus. We had our lunch on a bench in the park nearing the Uni. One could not help but amaze in wonder when you see natural beauty in its best. There was also this partial Solar eclipse today, which was visible without any interference from the clouds. As we looked down at the city and the valleys surrounding us, it reminded me a lot of the valleys in Swiss I had seen during my holiday last year at almost the same time. I shall write a detailed post about that trip sometime later. But for now, cheers to the beautiful nature, Gods best creation!