LUNA GIBBOSA CRESCENTE DAL COLOSSEO

The title of this post is a literal translation of the phrase “Waxing gibbous moon by the Colosseum” to Italian. I thought the translation sounded sexier than the original English text. LOL! When I took these photographs my intention was to capture the Roman Colosseum in multiple angles until I noticed the moon in one of the arches so I started including it in my compositions. It would have been nicer had it been a full moon but a waxing gibbous moon was just as good, it being the phase prior to a full moon. Thankfully, the sky was still bright enough for me to capture the details on the moon’s surface. Had I taken these an hour later the moon would have been just a pale yellow ball in the sky.

If you visited Rome between 2011 and early 2016, you would have seen the ongoing restoration work on the Colosseum, which was mostly covered in scaffolding. The shoe-and-luxury goods maker Tod’s donated millions for the restoration of this architectural wonder so lucky me to have visited it just as the project culminated. Anyway, it’s good to see the Colosseum in a cleaner state and am glad to know that more restoration work are being done to this day. Maybe the next time I’m in Rome I’ll get to see the additional renovations and when I take new photographs a full moon will be high up in the sky to photobomb this magnificent piece of architecture.

HEART OF ROME

Friends of mine are currently touring Italy and browsing through their pictures brought back pleasant memories of my vacation to this exquisite country last year. I immediately revisited my photo bank of the trip and discovered a good number of photographs worth posting in this page. My trip brought me to Rome, Florence, Tuscany and Venice before flying to Spain for the second half of my vacation. These places are rich in history and culture and my hundreds of photographs will never be able to give justice to the spectacular beauty I saw in person.  So the next series of photos on this site will feature photographs from my Italian trip beginning with the Colosseum right in the heart of Rome, which was recently cleaned up for a fresher look. This architectural wonder has become the city’s symbol and I captured it using my iPhone7 Plus in Pano mode in order to photograph the entire subject in a single shot.

ROME IN RUINS

The Palatine Hill in Rome is one of my favorite places to visit in the city. The whole place may be in ruins but it provides you an amazing picture of how great an empire Rome was centuries ago. On my first walk around this archeological heaven back in 2014, I was lucky to join a small guided tour with the most informed tour guide one could ask for. The most amazing thing I learned during the tour was that ancient Rome was right underneath modern day Rome. During my trip this year, I decided to head for the Capitoline Hill to capture a photo of Palatine Hill from a higher angle. In this panoramic photo I took using my iPhone 7 Plus, one can see the Roman Forum, Temple of Saturn and even the Colosseum in the far distance.

ROMAN HOLIDAY

It’s great to be back in Rome…the weather is beautiful and the air crisp and comfortably chilly. I arrived here yesterday and immediately made the rounds of every tourist landmark featured in a travel book. A number of them were under clean up renovation the last time I was here so it’s good to finally see them minus the scaffoldings. Fortunately, my hotel is just 15 minutes walk to all of these landmarks so I conveniently strolled my way around while enjoying a cone of my favorite gelato flavors from the landmark shop, Giolitti! I culminated my walkathon at the Colosseum and immediately played with my camera just like the thousands of tourists there that day. In order not to bore you with the same touristy photo of this ancient architectural wonder, I decided to capture its reflection on a puddle using my new iPhone 7. I’ve seen a number of photos using this technique so I decided to try it on the Colosseum…not bad for a first try…and the 12-megapixel iPhone camera did not disappoint.

THE COLOSSEUM

ColosseumThe Colosseum, also known as Flavian Amphitheatre, is the centerpiece of Rome’s spread of architectural masterpieces. Historically, this was a venue for entertainment such as gladiatorial fights and other public spectacles. The Colosseum is also considered as the largest amphitheatre ever built and is one of the greatest works of architecture and engineering. During my visit, our tour guide informed us that stones from the Forum and the Colosseum were taken out by the pope to build the St. Peter’s Basilica. And contrary to popular belief, no christians were fed to the lions at this place.

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