2909 - public transportation system scooter

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f10.0 | ISO100 | 1/13 | lightroom 4.1

already at 8am tina and i left the wonderful cottage in liguria. ten totally different days of holidays are now written in our small family history. hard to imagine that i have to go to work in two days again - anyhow some hours of resting are waiting for us.

when we finally arrived at home at 3pm my matriculation documents were already waiting for me in the pillar box. yes, you have this right - during the coming three years from now on i'll be a student again. my course computational engineering - that is provided by the beuth hochschule berlin - will proceed as different distance learning units. i'm very curious and will report every now and then from my study progress.

for now the last photograph from italy is about a very defining element of italian street life - simply everybody aged between 16 and 70 seems to own a scooter. funnily the scooters have the things on the streets firmly under control - they wiggle through all the blocked roads and thereby they scare one or two pedestrians and car drivers, too.

cu, trshptr

2809 - summer goodbye

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f4.0 | ISO100 | 1/800 | silver efex pro for lightroom

swimming in the ocean at the end of september isn't an usual activity for us. so today's vacation farewell trip to tellaro, a village in the south of la spezia that belongs to the most beautiful villages of italy on the initiative of the associazione nazionale comuni italiani, was something very special. 25 degrees in the shade and eight hours of sunshine, wonderful beaches, a refreshing sea and a terrific view along the high shore over the golf of la spezia across to portovenere and the isola palmaria really made a great surrounding for the last day of our holidays in italy.

a funny peculiarity of the most of the beaches of liguria is the fine pebble. tina really liked the very fine stones tickling her back. and they are good-looking, too.

cu, trshptr

2709 - market bustle

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f4.0 | ISO100 | 1/250 | lightroom 4.1

one of the most interesting opportunities of italian life for us foreigners is the terrific food. as everybody should know the italian cuisine is world-famous for its pizza and pasta, but also the pesto and antipasti. the basis for these delicious fares are fresh and organic, local ingredients: vegetables, noodles, bread and oil, spices and pesto, meat and fish and of course also wine. all of that can be obtained on the market.

besides a few recipes that result in a buying list in your mind and the colourful display a great many of busy people make a still urban scenery alive.

cu, trshptr

2609 - modern porto antico di genova

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f4.0 | ISO400 | 1/160 | lightroom 4.1

genoa is the biggest city in the region of liguria - thereby a must-visit - and one that is exceedingly proud of its harbour. as you can see in today's pic genoa is because of its location at the bottom of the apennine mountains almost exclusively facing its historical porto antico di genova and the mediterranean sea.

besides its historical importance the harbour of genoa is one of the biggest concerning its container handling in the whole mediterranean ocean. apparently their expansion isn't completed yet - today we saw different places inside the container harbour where new spaces for probably more containers are built by reclaiming land. the harbour gained its importance especially because of the wide northern hinterland of liguria that involves the industry areas from milan and turin and even comes down to the switzerland.

despite the very industrial character of the harbour (and the whole city, too) a bit of chic and vain has found its way into the old capital of liguria. the modern influence in the yacht harbour really fits to the antico porto di genova and the beautiful townscape of this costal city.

cu, trshptr

2509 - shutter island

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f5.6 | ISO100 | 1/640 | lightroom 4.1

sometimes in life you determine similarities between real life and stories that only exist in your mind. these can be stories from books, movies or also your own, personal dreams. today we've acted in a movie, of course a very great one.

besides the central, main cinque terre there are also villages and places in the region of liguria that are worth the journey and visit. today we had a look at porto venere, a very beautiful little town directly next to la spezia. additionally we had a long walk on the offshore isola palmaria, one of three islands next to porto venere, that seem to be reincarnations of the shutter island, a prison island (and identically named terrific film with leo do caprio) from hollywood.

there were different hints why shutter island is a suitable comparison to the isola palmaria: we heard some very loud gunshots today, walked along a few old massive bunker, saw many very old power lines, that have their origin in different fenced off areas, the abandoned island is characterised by high coast and of course there is a lighthouse. in the night it could have been really frightening staying on this island, but fortunately we visited the wonderful island at daytime.

funnily we were heaving a sigh of relief when we finally spotted the church san pietro of porto venere on the opposite mainland where the taxi boat dropped us off another hour later.

cu, trshptr

2409 - surreality

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f5.6 | ISO100 | 1/250 | lightroom 4.1

so this is the cinque terre, the world famous cinque terre? in advance tina and i had thought about visiting the well known villages monterosso, vernazza, corniglia, manarola and riomaggiore for a very long time. should we do it or should we steer clear of this overcrowded world cultural heritage?

summarising i can tell you that the view on these villages, especially from the upper paths, are simply stunning. surely anywhere in italy or the rest of the europe there are villages, paths and landscapes like the one you can find in the region of cinque terre, too. probably you don't have to search for a long time, in the north in the so called little cinque terre from moneglia to levanto or in the south in portofino you might find (maybe a bit more authentic) wonderful places and postcard sceneries, too.

the most important fact when you visit the cinque terre is to know what you are letting yourself in for. in off-season many, in season times a great many people will want to walk the same way with you. all prices (accommodation; food; parking; local traffic; the path itself, that is partly charged) are overpriced, the journey there is complicated, the paths besides the mainstream ones are not really good signposted.

however the other side of the coin is definitely existing. the locals are pleasant, the architecture is great and the paths are simply terrific, especially the difficult ones. maybe all the negative and typically touristic points are something that you simply have to take in if you want to see a world famous monument like the cinque terre (or the empire state building, the great wall of china or the pyramids).

maybe cinque terre isn't reality, but anyway a really funny peculiarity is located in manarola, my favourite of cinque terre: there is definitely the most beautiful roof terrace of the world.

cu, trshptr

2209 - feeling at home

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO1600 | 1/60 | lightroom 4.1

after a five hour car drive straight to the south tina and i finally arrived at our cottage at half past four. we'd already got a bunch of italian food ingredients in a local grocery store: vegetables, wine and beer, meat, pasta and of course a lot more, also for our breakfast as from tomorrow.

the cottage that we'll live in during the coming seven days is very small, but all the more comfortable. it's furnished in typical italian style, very cosy. we are feeling at home.

cu, trshptr

2109 - blue rain

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO125 | 1/60 | lightroom 4.1

unfortunately today was already our last day in south tirol. there are definitely some points that we will miss in the second part of our holidays in liguria:

first of all we will shed tears over the wonderful ortler alps, that are simply feast for the eyes. during our today's walk to the rosimboden almost 2500 metres above the sea level we had a great view over the valley of sulden across the huge kings of the ortler alps - the koenigsspitze, the zebru and the ortler itself. of course i've captured this absolutely idyllic postcard view in a panoramic photograph. to marvel at the three mountains in its perfect beauty in the described order from left to right please click here.

marginal note: the panorama function of the nex 7 works very, very well in good light conditions. as for me there's no need for wider lenses in this cases!

the second fact that we'll probably miss in liguria is the wellness world of our hotel. our guesthouse is very clean, tidy and beautifully furnished and the spa is supposed to be completely modernised. a sauna, a steam bath and a whirlpool complete the regeneration after a long day in the mountains. a special gimmick in the wellness area is the terrific rain shower that is illuminated in blue colour and spreading a fresh fragrance at the push of a button.

the sight is conveyable, but you have to fancy the smell.

cu, trshptr

2009 - in the red focus

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f5.6 | ISO100 | 1/250 | lightroom 4.1

vacation time is family time. so today i want to break my habits and let a guest writer, my most beloved and so far only one, refer about today's occurrences:

"hi, i'm tina and today it's a honour for me to write the daily posting of my husband's blog :)

i write this posting because today i saw my first two marmots!

although it was really not the first time that we were hiking in the mountains, till today i've often heard them piping but never seen one of them. so i was very lucky to finally spot one of them for real! fortunately we've had my grandpa's spyglass with us, so we could observe them while they were observing us, haha! :)"

the pic came up when i observed tina while she searching for anything interesting in the mountains. the red coloured reflections of me and the landscape in my back, the recurring colour red itself and the wonderful mountainscape in tina's back really please me.

our today's walk in prime weather:

cu, trshptr

1909 - making a dive

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO100 | 1/800 | lightroom 4.1

sometimes it occurs to me that living at the edge of germany may be a privilege, too. only three and a half hours of relaxed car drive to reach a vacation destination in the middle of south tirol almost 2000 metres above sea level is pure luxury. that's why we already arrived at half past two o'clock in sulden at the bottom of the huge ortler.

the weather was perfect - for a travel day in the car. rain, rain, rain, mist and fog. but - as you might know if you are a permanent follower of the blog - i really like moody weather conditions like that. so we took our backpacks and rain covers and strolled through the wet and dripping high valley. after a short walk we got to a wonderful coloured pond with also wonderful coloured and drawn ducks inside that made a dive for the rests of our pretzels.

a few hours and sauna visits later tina and i made a dive for a delicious dinner at our guesthouse. quite interesting how similar all the beings still are...

cu, trshptr