Friday, November 7, 2014

Missed photo opportunities




 La donna bella rosa. When we first got to Burano, a beautiful, tall woman in a long pink dress (which matched the pink ribbons on the green house above) leaned against the green house smoking a cigarette. How to take this photo unobtrusively without a telephoto lens? By the time I summoned Steve and his lenses, the photo op was over. The lady must have just had a new grand daughter as the ribbons suggested.

The canals of Bologna. We looked and looked for these on 2 occasions. I thought I had circled correctly on the map where they would be but apparently not. Steve was growing impatient (this was the bad mood day). Finally he said, Won't there be canals in Venice?

Are we in Saudi Arabia?Our plane landed at Malpensa at the same time as a flight from Riyad, Saudi Arabia. The passengers , all men, and all in flowing white garments awaited their luggage at the next carousel to ours. If I wasn't otherwise preoccupied in finding my suitcase and being so tired, it would have been a great photo. I have to say, not many of these men had bathed recently as their collective odor was quite overpowering. Do only American men bathe and use deodorant? Many of the Italian men did not smell too pretty either. Who did smell good? Many of the Italian women used a particular perfume that I instantly loved but could not identify. I even looked for a top seller list in Italy (none exists). All is not lost as the owner of our Castelrotto place, Frau Trocker, uses it too. I just have to ask (will that be rude?) as soon as I find the right German words.

The Bimbo Store On our Malpensa express, we (Portlandia, French plane expert and I) zipped by The Bimbo Store. Now I know that bimbi means kids but a different image came to mind. Portlandia was my companion for the flight and went with me to Milano Centrale. We parted ways in the ticket line. Portlandia is an apt name for her as I will go into at some other time, trust me.

The sex toy machine on Via Guelfa in Firenze. Our last early morning walk in the San Lorenzo neighborhood where we were staying. At first we thought it was just a condom machine but Steve noted that 15-25 euros were pricy for condoms but looking closely, it was for dildos and the ilk. Oh we will take a picture definitely on the way back but then, we returned a different way. Sometime on the train later, I remembered. Too late. Vending machines said 'self service' in English. We used the self service cappuccino machines on train platforms a few times. A good way to use up change and the cappuccino wasn't bad either.

The chamois  I saw about 5 of them on our bus ride up (operative word) to Castelrotto. Did not have my camera ready. From then on, I was always on the lookout but alas, no more chamois, a cross between an antelope and a goat. They were presumably all over the place in Abruzzo, a different sub-species, but I missed them too.

Some photos we did take:
One of the many spritzi I consumed. Should I make these for the Moms tonight? Somehow my usual role as the dessert lady morphed into appetizers. This should be a great appetizer. I did serve some to a friend the other day who seemed to like it.

Fountain in Desenzano

I love reflections

People in Desenzano have lots of money

I probably included this before but I love this photo of Ponte Vecchio.
 

2 comments:

Elephant's Child said...

Love the photos you did capture. And like fishermen there are always ones that get away.
My sick mind is tickled by the 'self service' tag (particularly on the sex toys machine).

Sue in Italia/In the Land Of Cancer said...

Yep..I am real sorry that I forgot to go back to the sex machine.

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