CONTINUED...

So this is Canova's Temple in Possagno. It's rather imposing, a bit like Rome's Pantheon being plonked in the countryside next to a little town. I only poked my head inside and it seemed to be used as the local church? I also saw a regular parade of pensioners pulling up to the bottom of the steps in beaten up Fiat Pandas, then carrying large boxes inside. Hopefully they contained props for a harvest festival and not something more sinister, as obviously old people in Fiat Pandas arriving at temples immediately strike me as being up to no good. 

What is up with my photo alignment lately? I have no idea either.

 I took every photo on this trip on my iphone using the VSCO Cam app and some with Instagram, which keeps crashing on me as I'm taking a photo so I don't trust it anymore. VSCO never crashes, I actually love it quite a lot. Way more subtle than Instagram. Maybe my eyeballs have been deadened by years of internet usage, but those pictures taken on VSCO seem like they're not bad quality at all. I don't feel bad posting them here, as if I've been too lazy to take 'proper' photos. Last time I went to Venice, I broke my beloved Canon A-E1, and I wanted to see if I could manage a trip using just my phone.

Here are the prosecco vines at Frozza's vineyard in Vidor. It was such a lovely place. Little dogs run out to greet you as you arrive (one very friendly puppy, one not so friendly door guarding dog.) We had a tasting with the owner, his daughter was running about with the dogs, there was a little vegetable patch just to the left of this picture and a pristine barn housing the tanks full of prosecco, not more than ten tanks. Dream life. We (well, not me) bought two cases of prosecco, one medium, one brut. I didn't like the brut at first but grew to like it and we basically drank most of the cases while I was in Venice...

Talking of Venice, someone said to me the other day that although I was in Venice, my photos don't look like Venice. I supposed because I've been going there frequently for so many years (15?) I don't think photos of bridges and canals would be that interesting... everyone knows what Venice looks like, right? Magical, amazing, but sometimes hard to take a picture that doesn't look like a postcard in a souvenir shop. I guess I'm more likely to take pictures of stuff that is new to me on trips to the mainland. But then maybe that's silly, I will make more of an effort to take Venice pictures with new eyes in future. To end, here are a couple of pictures of my view from the vaporetto late on a Sunday afternoon in the lagoon. Not very much like taking the tube.

ASOLO, CANOVA...

In Asolo, about an hour's drive from Venice, there is a Cipriani hotel with a beautiful garden you can have a spritz in. 

With a view...

That is breathtaking...

And a pomegranate orchard...

We went for a stroll around the town...

The place we had lunch at was called Al Bacaro and was really perfect for an early autumn day. I ate lots of polenta. The restaurant didn't have very photogenic lighting and was all dark and wooden inside. I liked it so much, but my photos just didn't do it justice. 

Then we drove to Possagno, to the Gipsoteca di Canova, the museum which houses the original plaster cast models of Antonio Canova's sculptures. The plaster works are housed in a completely plaster white space, with an additional wing designed by Carlo Scarpa. The whole effect was really striking. (You can just see the dots all over the Three Graces here, to work out the proportion/measurements.) 

You're not supposed to take photos there. Oops.

Next to the Gipsoteca is Canova's house. The garden was my favourite bit again - I think I'm turning into my granny (Granny B not Granny Dragon for those familiar with my ancestry). Granny B would've loved it there. 

To be continued...

That's enough of me being the Veneto region tourism board for now - we also went to Canova's Temple and then drove around the prosecco growing region of Valdobbiadene, stopping to buy some cases at a sweet, tiny winery called Frozza.   

{All photos taken by me.}

I ♡ ROMA...

{Here's} a link to my latest post for Fathom on how to roam like a Roman, you know, when in Rome.

And below are some snaps I took at the Porta Portese flea market that I didn't post before.

Baci xx

ENGLISH WINTERSUMMER ANTIDOTE...

Rome, June 2012. Where the sun shines every day, everything is beautiful and the answer is always yes to gelato.

{Disposable camera snaps and a few digitals thrown in.}

AM NOT DEAD...

In fact quite the opposite! Have been roaming a lot lately, most recently in Rome. More soon - baci! x

{Can't find a credit for First photo of Monica Vitti credit: AP, the second the internet is telling me is by Helmut Newton - could be possible I suppose, but unlikely?}

MIRAMARE...

Castello di Miramare, on the Gulf of Trieste. It was completed in 1860 for the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian and his wife Charlotte of Belgium. In 1864 they left to become Emperor Maximilian and Empress Carlota of Mexico. In 1867 Maximilian was assassinated in Mexico and Charlotte returned to Castello di Miramare, but she 'slowly lost her reason' and was taken back to Belgium by her family. Such a tragic story and such a short time they had at this spectacularly idyllic and peaceful location.