thursday thirtheen [48] : where was I? part two

sharing vacation pics

1. ( Click here for Part One)
We skied in France until the Alps started to look like this:

then we knew our season was over and it was time to pack our skiing things away...
2. And headed out to Italy. We took the Tunnel du Frejus . Funny thing: you start in France and 13 km/8.5 miles later you are in Italy, through the Alps!
3. Here is the pic I took without a flash

4, Then we reached Livorno, which is in the Liguria region
5. and saw the beautiful old fortress


6. Drove along Tuscany on a sunday



7 . Here is a view of Tuscan wine fields in the back, not far away from the coastline. A post about lunch in a little Tuscan village is being prepared :)

8. Visited Populonia, the only major Etruscan city by the sea. It is situated on the western coast of central Italy on the Monte Massoncello Peninsula, in front of the Elba island. The reason for the city's existence is found in the vast slag remnants from the smelting of silver and iron… More about Populonia can be found here.

Those are somebody else's helmets, we took our car... Particularly on sunny days, it is difficult for me to see what I am photographing and then I have the surprise effect when I get to see the pics on my computer...!

9. We drove further and reached Piombino. "While under the rule of the Boncompagni-Ludovisi family it was taken by the French and in 1805 Napoleon Bonaparte gave it to his sister Elisa, She left her mark, and Piombino became known for a time as "little Paris". Leonardo da Vinci was among the many illustrious visitors to the city". How about that!!
At any rate, from Piombino we saw the Elba Island , too bad that was a cloudy day...but I hope you get the idea:

10. After so much history we drove to Genoa for some city life and some business for Mr Mar.



11. This is a view from the Piazza de Ferrari, which is an ancient Genoese family name and it's not related to the automobile company. This picture is taken from the Opera Theater in the heart of Genoa and you can see the de Ferrari fountain, which was constructed in 1936,




12. Genoa is the home of pesto, but they not only know how to eat well, they had these lovely flowers decorating the surroundings of the Piazza de Ferrari:

I counted more than a dozen pots and I took many pictures of them, I find those huge terra cotta pots simply fascinating!

13. And here is a closer look of one of those magnificent pots. I wish I could have taken
all of themone pot with me but there was absolutely no room left in the car, believe me!


Happy thirteening!

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