“Nebbia” – Parco Sant’Artemio, Treviso (TV), Italy
‘Just can’t help myself from taking a picture of the effects of the fog over the colors of the autumn season.
Wishing everyone a beautiful day! 🌈
Fog..
Category: Hopping around…
Night lights…
There are really so many things to see in the city of Verona but this time I would like to share with you some pictures taken while walking home from a very pleasant dinner in a typical Italian (Veneto region) “Trattoria”. But what I am most grateful for was about the opportunity, though brief, to be with persons I care about. Life is a journey… to love or not to. What is the price? I still believe that it is always worth it to have loved than not to have loved at all!
Looking forward for a new day. A promise of new opportunities of joy, hope and love for all!
A statue of an angel outside the “Duomo of Verona – Cattedrale della Santa Maria Matricolare” – one of the most important monuments in the city of Verona.
Val Venegia, (TN), Italy
The day was sunny enough for a walk and to think about having lunch in a very nice and cosy alpine hut for pasture/a place to eat a kind of cheese called “Tosella” made out of the milk from the cows (75) owned by the family renting this “Malga” or to eat some of the typical foods served only in the mountain – although you can also prepare the same recipe at home but strangely, the same food just don’t taste the same!
So after a pleasant walk from the reserved space for parking (an easy walk – 1 hour and 30 minutes, probably my steps were slow due to my need to just breath in the beauty of this truly amazing valley!)… Finally the bridge – at the end of the curve…
” Malga Venegiota”-
The most heartwarming part about this walk was the sight of the beauty of nature (a luxury for those living in the city!) – the sound of the rushing water in the stream filled with water after the heavy rain of the past days, the bright colors of alpine flowers and the color of the dolomite rock of the “Pale di San Martino” – a mountain range in the Dolomites and the dairy cows pasturing and ringing the big bells hanged around their necks making the atmosphere festive.
I never thought that a flowing stream could produce art…or so it seemed to me.
and a line could bring my eyes towards…
and the same view could be perceived in color or in black and white and still have meaning to it?
Life is a journey.
Often, the most profound meanings of things are explained through silence. AFS
Thank you for dropping by…
Have a wonderful day!
Verona 2020, Italy
Looking for something special and finding more than what I have expected to find…
View from the Torre dei Lamberti.
street view…
Bridges…
View from Castel San Pietro
The weather was good, I had time, good company and the whole world to see…
Life is a journey…
Rifugio Coldai, Val di Zoldo (BL), Veneto, Italy
There are places that never fails to amaze me…
View of the path after 1 hour and 30 minutes from Rifugio Palafavera, Val di Zoldo (BL) – Veneto region.
The town of Forno di Zoldo from a panoramic point of “Sentiero” (path) n. 564.
Mt. Pelmo – also called “il Trono di Dio” (God’s throne) because of its majestic shape – a little imagination…
Reaching Rifugio Coldai was already fulfilling but I just can’t miss the opportunity to see once again this very beautiful glacial lake (only 20 minutes from the alpine refuge) at the foot of Monte Coldai – il Lago Coldai (Lake Coldai) – 2,143 meters above sea level.
The view is so breathtaking that it feels like being in the midst of Vivaldi’s “Estate” (Summer) – from the “Le Quattro stagioni concerto” (the Four seasons).
Some alpine flowers…
At 2,135 meters above sea level…
Looking at life through a grateful heart… ❤️
Wishing everyone a beautiful week!
Rifugio Vallaccia, Val di Fassa, Italy
Hiking with the right company is one of the best ways to enjoy the beauty of nature and to celebrate this year’s “Ferragosto” – A holiday here in Italy, celebrated on the 15th of august, where families and friends gather together for a picnic. With the pandemic, celebrating it like all these years is a big problem, for me, it is one of these moments when the saying “Who finds a true friend, finds a treasure” gets it’s affirmation!
We took a service van from the parking near a restaurant called “Ristorante La Soldanella” in Pozza di Fassa to “Malga Monzoni” and from there a relatively easy hike to the alpine refuge “Rifugio Vallaccia” which is located at 2275 meters above sea level. Oh! the first part of the path was a little hard (a 400 mt. dislevel) but the view and the silence is what really makes this walk one of the most beautiful that I have ever done in the Dolomites.
The flowers and…
finally… after 1 hour and 30 minutes walk…we finally arrived at the “Rifugio Vallaccia”
on the way back, a natural rock garden caught my eye…
and the “Stella alpina” – Leontopodium alpinum (Edelweiss) – a rare and very beautiful flower, symbol of the Alps.
I walked more than a hundred mountain trails…
I looked for you hoping to fulfill a dream
I saw rare and beautiful flowers along the way
But in my mind that dream remained
One day, after a long time of searching
I thought I’ll never find you…
I have searched and dreamed of you
Suddenly, in the midst of some alpine flora, on a rock…you were there.
I have found beauty and peace.
AFS 15/8/2020
Giardino vegetazionale Astego, Crespano del Grappa (TV), Italy
An amazing botanical garden…in the province of Treviso.
A place to learn more about the environment…
A vegetable garden…
and flowers everywhere…
Zinnias..
Wishing everyone a pleasant and fruitful week!
The “Maso” – Farmstead, Val Pusteria, Italy
Life in a “Maso” more than a 100 years ago…
a very old farmstead
a typical vegetable garden.
old tools
an old cart…
a very old farmstead
old tools
a typical vegetable garden.
an old cart…
the kitchen and the dining room…
did you notice something on the wall near the window? our guide told us that in those times, they don’t wash the spoon, fork and knives after eating but they will just clean them using their saliva and clothes and hang them on the wall for the next meal. 😳
Oh! I tried to raise the frying pan and it was really very heavy! The one who cooked the meals in this family must be muscled and patient. The empty pan weighted more than 3 kilos! with something in it? OMG!
A simple life but probably a happier one.
Then, before the guide (in his 70’s) left us, he shared this poem which kept me thinking all night. And I thought… indeed, it is the journey through life and the way I live it that matters more than the goal that I have set. I am so thankful to that guide because through him I have learned a very beautiful poem…and I would like to share it with you.
“Ithaca” by C.P. Cavafy
As you set out for Ithaca hope that your journey is a long one, full of adventure, full of discovery.
The Laestrygonians and Cyclopes, angry Poseidon. Do not be afraid of them:
You’ll never find things like that on your way, as long as you keep your thoughts raised high, as long as a rare sensation touches your spirit and your body.
The Laestrygonians and Cyclopes, wild Poseidon, you won’t encounter them unless you bring them along inside your soul. Unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope that your journey is a long one. May there be many summer mornings when, with what pleasure, what joy, you come into harbors you’ve seen for the first time!
May you stop at the Phoenician markets, trading stations to buy fine things, mother-of-pearl and corals, amber and ebony, sensual perfume of every kind – as many sensual perfumes as you can; and may you visit many Egyptian cities, to learn and learn again from those who know.
Keep Ithaca always in your mind. Arriving there is what you’re destined for. But do not hurry the journey at all. Better if it lasts for years, so that you are old by the time you reach the island, wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way, not expecting Ithaca to make you rich.
Ithaca gave you the marvelous journey. Without her you would have not set out. She has nothing left to give you now. And if you find her poor, Ithaca won’t have fooled you. Wise as you will have become, so full of experience, you’ll have understood by then what these Ithacas mean.
Have a wonderful day!
Val Pusteria, Alto Adige, Italy
What happens when someone gets a little freedom to move around after the Coronavirus pandemic?
Life is a journey. Inspite of the pandemic, I am happy to know that it is still possible to experience new sensations and discover new places.
Wishing everyone a wonderful day!
Rifugio Scarpa,Voltago Agordino (BL)
Hello everyone! It’s summer and time to visit places (unfortunately, due to the coronavirus pandemic, here in the Veneto region, we still need to wear a mask if we go inside shops, alpine refuges and to always use sanitizers – this is a practice which is actually not a bad!) but life is better now (we have more freedom to go and visit places!) than the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak!
While I was doing this trail n. 771 starting from the hamlet “Frassene” in the small town of Voltago Agordino, the decision to to do some trekking in this part of the province of Belluno was really a good idea. The first trail done in this part of Belluno because I always thought that the best and most beautiful mountain refuges are located in the zone near the famous city of Cortina d’Ampezzo. I was really surprised to see that even in this not so renowned part of the province of Belluno I can see and walk on a trail which is well marked, easy enough (more than a trail it is a wide path) and with a so beautiful view of the Dolomites (oh! Trail n. 771 has a dislevel of 600 mt. from Frassene to Rifugio Scarpa – 1 hr and 30 minutes walk according to our map – for me it was 2 hrs and 30 minutes because of my passion for photography!, at the end of the day I realized that inadequate information and prejudice is often a bad data to consider when it comes to evaluating the trail and alpine refuge to reach. I must say that this is truly one of the most beautiful mountain path/trail that I have ever done here in Italy. Oh! A mountain refuge can offer you a lot of good food to eat but if you want to save, you can always bring with you a some food/snacks/fruit from home and consume it while sitting on a picnic blanket. The budget for this trip was only €25 including the gasoline, home prepared sandwiches, snacks bought from a supermarket, coffee and a piece of cake bought from the Refuge. Spending a lot of money is not always the only way to enjoy life! This is the first Alpine refuge of the season and I sure hope that I’ll be able to discover more before the summer ends.
finally the alpine refuge…Rifugio Scarpa – Gurekian 1735 m
The weather started to change when we arrived at the refuge but I guess, for those who have trekked here in the mountains in the north of Italy, the weather can change easily after 2 pm in the afternoon.
and…
Lilium bulbiferum – Giglio di San Giovanni – ISO 100 – 56mm – f/9 – 1/160s
Life is like a never-ending story and it is always up to us to paint it with the beautiful colors of love, peace, joy and compassion.
Wishing everyone a beautiful Sunday and a pleasant week ahead!
