Off to Italy

[Andrea B.]

I'll be in Italy for a couple of weeks, leaving the house, 2 house cats and 6 bird feeders in the good hands of our dear friend and house-sitter Kimberly. While I'm sure I will have internet connections everywhere I go -- after all the world is wirelessly "wired" now wherever we go -- I may not want to be online daily! However, please know that I'll catch up to all posts eventually. And of course Bjørn will be stopping by to keep an eye on things.

 

Someday I really must pack up the UV gear and photograph the Roman ruins in UV. That will require quite some planning ahead though. (Scheduling, etc. Might need some permits for tripods in some areas?) This trip is for family visits (my husband's cugini, cousins) and fun. So I'm taking only the very versatile D750 with a lightweight 24-85 kit lens for vacation snapshots and memory photos.

 

Arrivederci!

[nfoto]

Have fun, enjoy the Mediterranean sun and light.

 

I'll keep an eye on UVP meanwhile.

[Andrea B.]

La luce è così bella, così clara.

 

_{Parco Villa Balestra, Roma, Italia}

[nfoto]

We had 20 cm of wet snow and gale-force winds the last days. Some spring ...

[Anfy]

Rome is beautiful in this season, in UV light or not! :)

[Andrea B.]

Here you go -- some typical tourist shots!! Because I am being a typical tourist and enjoying all the sights and people. I have a 24-85 kit lens on my D750 because it is easy to sling that cross ways with the red Peak Design camera strap and walk all day making snapshots. (Not photographs!)

 

Foro Romano, Roma

The skies in Rome are this blue.

 

 

Fiori Selvatici, Roma

So many red poppies! (Papaver rhoeas)

 

 

The Wedding Cake, Roma

Monument to King Victor Emmanuel II.

 

 

Mar Tirreno, Tor San Lorenzo

 

 

Michael's Cousin Luisa and Her Friend, Tor San Lorenzo

We had coffee, tiramisu and gelato here.

^{The photo is a bit pumped(!), but the Tyrrhenian Sea is this green-blue colour. Just darker.}

 

 

Gatto Rotondo, Pratica Di Mare

A sleepy, happy, rather round cat.

 

 

Red Shoe, Green Shoe on the Bus

 

 

Red Poppies at the Grocery Store

Note the persistance of green life in this tiled parking area.

And wildflowers grow everywhere in Rome.

 

 

Too Much Graffitti - and Yet Wildflowers

Graffitti like many large cities. Wildflowers unlike most.

[Andy Perrin]

The cat is my favorite. Internet tradition, I suppose.

 

I also love the poppy closeup (2nd poppy pic) and the wildflowers!

[nfoto]

Nice flowers ... Not certain about the species identifications though, although the Malvaceae member (in the Graffiti image) should be easy to classify given the appropriate flora(s) at hand. It looks somewhat like Malva sylvestris, but there might be other candidates. The yellow flower is perhaps a Picris, but yellow composite flowers are a dime a dozen in any country. Again one needs the flora(s). The red poppy looks like Papaver argemone or P. dubium, as the capsules are long and narrow unlike the broad ones of P. rhoeas.

[Andrea B.]

Do these help?

The poppies with hairs perpendicular to stem (1, 3) and with black spot on petals (1, 2, 3) are P. rhoeas. Poppies in the Forum (2) are said to be P. rhoeas.

However, I have not keyed any of these so would not want to ID them with certainty. "-)

Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papaver_rhoeas

 

 

 

[nfoto]

These look very 'rhoeas'-like, agree.

 

The black spots are not a reliable character, however. Many Papaver-species can have them on occasion.

[Andrea B.]

[Testing email response to new comment.]

[nfoto]

Likewise. Can an e-mail reach Italy from Norway after crossing the Atlantic at least twice?