The Bell Towers of Venice

I keep noticing themes with my photos and in my Venice collection I noticed quite a few images with bell towers in them. 

Traffic jam in Venice! 

Four towers in on photo! So many towers in Italy! 

One thing I have learned to appreciate are the bell towers found in the cities of Italy. They are great for figuring out where you are and what monuments are near by. In Venice it was super helpful having so many around the city as location points. It also helped that we were staying down the street from one so it wasn't hard to get lost. With all the crazy streets that sometimes have dead ends it's very helpful to have them to look up too. If you're ever going to Venice, figure out if where you are staying is near one and go from there. 

Leaning bell towers in Venice 

The most famous tower in Venice, St. Marks Campanile and also in this photo, Doges Palace

An iconic photo of Venice Saint Marks Campanile and Doges Palace. The bridge to the right is where you can have a view of the Bridge of Sighs. 

-MM

A little taste of Florence

I have been going through my photos and wanting to get them out in the world more. I went to school for photography and one of my concentrations was food photography. The one great thing about Europe is the fresh markets and how easily accessible local produce is. One of my favorite vegetables to photograph is Artichokes. The purple and green colors are so vibrant. 

Walking around Florence there were quite a few of the open air markets which was where the artichoke photos were taken. Florence is also known for its Mercato Centrale (Central Market) which is the an indoor market. Downstairs is where the local produce is and upstairs is where restaurants a using the produce to create the food. The food is delicious and I highly recommend eating up there. 

One of the stands

Steak Tomatoes

Ravioli with Spinach and Ricotta

Steak, Provolone and Spinach perfectly wrapped. 

There is so much to see and capture at this market. It is worth the visit when you're visiting Florence. Hope you add it to the list of places you need to stop at!

-MM

Edinburgh, Scotland

I went on another adventure with friends and this time we went to Edinburgh, Scotland. We wanted to go to another place we had never been before, before the new year. Being that we went in December it was Christmas Market season. One of my friends had never been to one so we made sure to check it out. They are really fun to go, have mulled wine and look at / purchase local crafts. The markets are all over Europe and each one different from the next. This one had some carnival rides and different levels to walk up and down. All the way at the bottom was Santa's wonderland for the kids. Music was playing through the speakers and it was just magical! 

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

The Last day we went to the Edinburgh castle, because you can't go to Edinburgh and not experience a castle! There was a man playing bag pipes in a kilt at the bottom of the street where the castle was. It was everything you expected of Scotland and more. If you want some good views of the city head on up to the Castle and you might even run into the bag piper on the way!  On the way to the city centre we stopped by the National Monument of Scotland and took some fun photos.

You can maybe spot people taking selfies! 

While standing on the monument facing towards the city was this tower! 

One more stop before town centre was this cool looking graveyard. 

The architecture is really neat in Scotland and I enjoyed photographing it. (If you haven't noticed from my posts by now I really like taking architecture photos.) You can tell there is a lot of history in this city and the locals seem very proud! Everywhere we went the locals were very welcoming and interested in chatting. 

This sunset was beautiful at the castle! 

We then ended up being the last ones to leave the castle just after 5pm! We spent a good 2 hours there! 

It was a wonderful time wandering around Edinburgh and I can't wait to go back to venture out into the countryside! Maybe even take the Hogwarts Express (The Jacobite), which takes you through the Highlands. We lucked out with no rain and had two really pretty sunsets. December might be chilly but it was a great time to visit and fairly cheap too, being that it was the off season! We did visit Victoria Street which is where Diagon Alley was based off of. It was pretty magical ;) but I only took those photos on my phone. Check my instagram page and it will have some posts about it!  

-MM

This time Venice

The last blog post I focused on Murano and Burano, two islands near Venice. It is now time for a post about Venice itself. Back in the end of July my two friends and I had a few days off so we decided to go to Venice. We had ideas of what we wanted to see but didn't have it totally all planned out. As we tend to do when we go to Europe we just kind of wing it and explore. Which is exactly what ended up happening. The first day when we arrived we decided to stay up all day without a nap since we didn't have much time there, figured we would make the most out of our trip and just wander.

Those images were just a few of images of just wandering around and getting lost. I don't like saying I'm lost... I like saying I'm on an adventure, because you can't really be lost if you don't know where you're going in the first place! :) 

The rest of the wandering around through Venice I just kept focusing on the architecture as you can see above! There were the essentials to photograph like the Rialto bridge, Bridge of Sighs and then St. Marks Basilica. We didn't go into any of the buildings because we didn't feel we had enough time so we just looked at everything from the outside. Realistically you won't just go to Venice for 3 days like we did. There is just way to much to see, but we had a great time exploring a new city and look forward to going back one day, (at least I can't wait!)

Here are some tips:

Plan to be there for at least a week and for the water taxis to take forever so don't be in a rush.

It will most likely be Very crowded.

It's hot in the summer so dress appropriately but remember you can't have your shoulders showing if you go in the churches so pack a light sweater or shall. 

Go with a plan if you'd like or just wander, you will find things to keep you occupied either way.

Last but not least, have fun and eat well, it's Italy so the food is amazing! 

Ciao! 

-MM