Here is the best 2,000-year-old remnant of Rome. If this is a ransacked remnant, what must Rome have looked like in its prime?
Everyone in the neighborhood is finishing the day in Piazza Navona.
The oculus gives plenty of light; rain disappears into drains hidden in the marble floor.
Michelangelo captured David’s indignation and determination in his expression.
The Baptistery is green and white marble only, no flowers; the newly baptized would emerge through the Gates of Paradise to enter the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Flower, made from green, white and pink marble, with stylized flowers everywhere.
This beautiful building is topped with Brunelleschi’s famous Dome.
Not throwing myself off the Ponte Vecchio into the Arno, rather enjoying sunset over Florence. Those old Italian landscapes are not making up those weird shapes or the colors!
Peter on the Bernina Express
Glacier and lake at Bernina pass
Stop to see the view
I planned the days in Paris and Italy, and Peter the techie made up plans for the other days as we went. To my surprise and delight, we journeyed to Switzerland. This is near Heidi’s part of the Alps.
Switzerland is so beautiful that, framed by a moving train or hotel room window, it looks like a painting.
St. Moritz
Monet’s gardens at Giverny.
As beautiful as Monet’s paintings are, the living gardens add fragrance, sound of wind, birds and bees, the caress of wind and sun on skin, and movement of clouds, plants and creatures, that makes the beauty of the living thing surpass the image beyond all bounds.
not a painting
