In Rome

Just a short upload on a video taken by my brother when we were holidaying in Rome, a city I wanted to go back again one day but with my love one.

A surprise at the end of the video!

Reflection

One of my favourite 'must shoot' scenary would be reflections.

Reflections could be from the water (which are most of my photos), glass, mirrors, etc.

What so special of photographing a mirror image of a subject? Just check out the photos and see.

The photo which started it all
Florence, Italy 2008

And also from this
Zaans Schans, Holland 2008


Versallies Palace, France 2008


Stockholm, Sweden 2009


Nile river sunrise, Egypt 2009


The Parliament at Bern, Swiss 2009


townhall at Basel, Swiss 2009


Pamukkale, Turkey 2009


Copenhagen, Denmark 2009


View of the Frederiskborg Castle, Denmark 2009


Nyhavn at Copenhagen, Denmark 2009


Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2010


Inside the Alcazar garden
Seville, Spain 2009


Alhambra, Granada Spain 2009


And of course my most famous picture
Lake Titicaca, Peru 2009


Yosemite National Park, USA 2007


During the highland tour, Scotland 2008


View from my safari lodge
Kruger Park, South Africa 2010


Kruger Safari, South Africa 2010


Swaziland 2010


View from the cable car
Lantau Island, Hong Kong 2010


Wan Chai harbour, Hong Kong 2010


Storm, my cousin's dog
CNY 2011

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

the famous tower upclose

Pisa is a small town located in Tuscany and about an hour train ride from Florence. We took this chance to visit the famous leaning tower as a day trip from Florence. Pisa is small to walk around and after a few minutes walk, we could see the leaning tower from far. Even from far we could see that the tower is tilted towards one side. We could see almost all the tourist did the must do pose in front of the Pisa tower! and off course we also couldnt resist not to pose the cliche pose..haha..well you gotta pose what you gotta pose when you are in Pisa!

Other than that, we practically covered Pisa in less than half a day. However, it's a good experience to see the tilted tower upclose. One can actually climb up the tower to have a good view of the town but we didnt do so as the weather was too hot. Why the tower is tilted? Read somewhere that it started sinking after a few years after it was built.

Pisa from afar

posing the cliche pose :)



the cathederal




notice those tourists on the left side?

Triangel

Triangel

Two writeup in a day..hmmm just feel like writting this since I am actually hooked on watching this TVB re-run series on Astro entitled 'Triumph in the Skies' which was a story on pilots and they had many scenes in Rome and Hokaiddo.

In fact, the reason I wanted to go to Rome so much during my first Europe trip back in 2008 was because of this show. And my brother even went gaga over a Triangel (a doll made popular in the series which initially belong to Flora Chan). We saw one of these 'angels'/dolls while walking around in Venice and bought one home. I still think the Triangel in the series looks much better.

Triangel doll symbolize as a Guardian of Love. Got this story off the internet

The Triangel originated from a famous Italian allusion. In the times of ancient Rome, there was a kindhearted lady falling in love with a young man who was witched to be indifferent to the lady. The lady was so depressed and sit in front of the window crying day and night. Finally, her love had touched the Gods. They sent the Triangel to the lady which could make the witch appear in front of the young man. The young man realized that his true love was the lady and they had fallen in love again!

Now, in Italy, girls like to place their Triangels in their rooms and let the Triangels bless them.

venetian mask

magnets and miniature Colosseum from Roma

O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?

Juliet's balcony

Sound familiar? That's the famous quote from the balcony scene of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. I had a chance to visit the 'birthplace' of the famous Romeo and Juliet in Verona, Italy, an easy day trip from Venice. The journey took about an hour plus from Venice to Verona Porta Nouva and we had the whole day to explore the town on foot. The town is easy to navigate and most attractions can be reached on foot. It was here in Verona that Shakespeare set the scene of the famous play. Among the highlight of the attractions is off course the famous Juliet's balcony where Romeo declared his love. There are also the Montague house as well as Juliet's tomb.

Colliseum?
nope it's the Arena


the Arena is still being used


inside the Arena


view from top of Arena

Although Verona is not as famous as Venice, Florence or Rome, the place is worth spending time in. It's a good place to just chill out and discover the romantic traces of the star crossed lovers.
After all, there are less tourist here and you can tried out their famous horse meat which sadly we couldnt locate any restaurant selling the meat.

Juliet's tomb


two layers in Verona


Juliet's house


Juliet's statue
supposingly to rub her breast for luck


the Balcony


lovers around the world declare their love here


the town






Romeo's house