I'm back...the adventure is over.
Hey everyone, I've just spent the past 3 weeks in Italy exploring the region known as Ancient Campania. 3 weeks climbing ancient ruins, walking through Pompeii and Herculaneum, having class in ancient amphitheatres dating back to the 2nd century B.C., and ascending the heights of Mount Vesuvius. It was just the most amazing experience of my life. I posted some pics on my .Mac homepage that everyone is welcome to check out. Most of it is of the 19 people in my class, but there are some absolutely stunning shots we took. Also, between a couple of us, we took 5554 digital shots, so there will be more to come. Enjoy!
EDIT: Posting a link usually helps...lol...jet lag.
http://homepage.mac.com/filmmaker2002/PhotoAlbum27.html
EDIT: Posting a link usually helps...lol...jet lag.
http://homepage.mac.com/filmmaker2002/PhotoAlbum27.html
Comments
is there a link to your webpage?
oops now i see it lol
categorizing them would help ... by ruin, by date, or by subject (reflections, landscape, portrait, etc.)
especially if you're potentially going to post 5500 images.
how many flash cards and how many batteries?
Originally posted by curiousuburb
some impressive shots there, dude. looks awesome.
categorizing them would help ... by ruin, by date, or by subject (reflections, landscape, portrait, etc.)
especially if you're potentially going to post 5500 images.
how many flash cards and how many batteries?
Yeah, they are all categorized in iPhoto by location and date. As far as cards and batteries go...there were about 5 of us with digitals. Most of them were Sony's, I use a 3.2 Megapixel Canon Powershot. I had 2 128 MB Cards to get me through each day, then at the end of each day I would download them onto my Powerbook that I had with me. Everyone else would do the same in order to reuse their cards. I shot about 15 hours of video with my Canon GL2 as well, I have yet to go through it all of course. But since we all had rechargeables, it wasn't a problem at all. Especially at the Amalfi Coast. The Amalfi Coast is one of those places where you could give a blind man a camera and he'll shoot pure beauty. I shot a good 200 pics there alone.
(btw, any chance u can get me the phone number of the very beautiful black girl in pic DSCN0353?
Originally posted by SpcMs
Nice pictures! Italy is great!
(btw, any chance u can get me the phone number of the very beautiful black girl in pic DSCN0353?
LOL, nice try. Her name is Suki, she's Jamaican, and yeah, she's beautiful. So beautiful in fact that she has had a boyfriend for 3 years...I found that out luckily before I tried hooking up with her.
Great Pics ! I am sure you had a cool time!
Fellows
there can be a beauty to old abandoned buildings. we have an old farmhouse near here that is falling apart but if you could see it, the whole settings look almost like a painting, a "beautiful devestation" you'd have to see it to know what i mean.
i love anything connected to the roman empire. im glad you enjoyed your trip.
Great pictures!
Originally posted by futuremac
you'll laugh at this one, but im amazed at how exposed those ruins are (thats why they call them ruins, lol) i would think they apply some sort of weatherproof coating to the most important ones? or try to rebuild some of them. did you ask about preservation? what do they look like up close?
Over half of all the archeological sites in Europe are in Italy, and Italy just doesn't have the money to preserve them all. The number of sites that have been found but not uncovered rivals that of what's already uncovered. It's insane.
Originally posted by bunge
Over half of all the archeological sites in Europe are in Italy, and Italy just doesn't have the money to preserve them all. The number of sites that have been found but not uncovered rivals that of what's already uncovered. It's insane.
Very true. When we were in Baia, I was speaking with the chief archaeologist (we were given tours by the head archaeologists in Europe...it was incredible) and she was telling me that there is just SO much to be uncovered, it is impossible to fund the programs, but luckily she received a major government grant to restore the Baia site. But yeah, we were at one villa near Herculaneum, and it was HALF excavated. I have a shot (which I will post tomorrow) of a very large pool in the yard of the villa that nobody is sure how big it is because it isn't completely excavated. It really is amazing, because in order to get a building permit in Italy, archaeologists have to dig the site to make sure there are no important artifacts or structures, and if there are, the building is put on hold until the site is fully excavated. It's insane, archaeologists could find a good 100x more than they have, but everything is buried under people's basements. Herculaneum especially. Herculaneum which suffered a similar pyroclastic flow disaster as Pompeii (literally buried by mud, soot and volcanic ash) wasn't discovered until a city had practically been built on top of it. It's funny actually, because you're in a large city, and all of a sudden...BAM, there's the 2000 year old remains of an ancient town. It's just remarkable.
Originally posted by filmmaker2002
It really is amazing, because in order to get a building permit in Italy, archaeologists have to dig the site to make sure there are no important artifacts or structures, and if there are, the building is put on hold until the site is fully excavated. It's insane, archaeologists could find a good 100x more than they have, but everything is buried under people's basements.
The original stretch of subway in Rome took over 40 years to build. It really is basically insane. And the first time you see Ercolano (Herculanium) surrounded by apartments, it's not really fairy tale but it's not reality. Surreal, really. And as large as Pompeii is, even that isn't completely excavated. They just can't get to it all.
The Roman Empire left us about as much as we could wish for. It's all very very stunning.
A lot of sites in Italy, like the other 80% of Pompeii that's still under volcanic ash, will remain that way probably forever. As you said, the elements take their toll, and certain very special or important places in those ruins that have been excavated are not accessible to the public and are protected by tents and other enclosures. You can see some of that stuff in the pictures too, of course. There are some AMAZING spaces in Pompeii that most people never see, and some aren't completely excavated (which looks quite cool).
Naples has a nice museum, huh? I wasn't expecting that. Hope you didn't lose anything at the train station, or have to survive the old city after dark. I sure as hell hope you had some pizza there, though!!
Paestum's temples were restored a little over 5 years ago. When I was there, they were wrapped in steel and scaffolding. They look great now. Thanks!
Originally posted by BuonRotto
Wow, I'm getting really nostalgic looking at those pictures. The bus, the casement windows, the terrazzo floors? I hope that cat wasn't a stray. I stayed the hell away from the stray cats all over my neighborhood in Rome, and the disgusting stray dogs in Pompeii.
A lot of sites in Italy, like the other 80% of Pompeii that's still under volcanic ash, will remain that way probably forever. As you said, the elements take their toll, and certain very special or important places in those ruins that have been excavated are not accessible to the public and are protected by tents and other enclosures. You can see some of that stuff in the pictures too, of course. There are some AMAZING spaces in Pompeii that most people never see, and some aren't completely excavated (which looks quite cool).
Naples has a nice museum, huh? I wasn't expecting that. Hope you didn't lose anything at the train station, or have to survive the old city after dark. I sure as hell hope you had some pizza there, though!!
Paestum's temples were restored a little over 5 years ago. When I was there, they were wrapped in steel and scaffolding. They look great now. Thanks!
No, the cat wasn't a stray, it belonged to the family who ran the villa we stayed in in Cumae. And as far as those places in Pompeii people never see...we saw them. Our professor has been doing this trip for over 20 years and has become very close with archaeological leaders and site officials.. We were able to get into a number of houses in Pompeii not open to the public. I have some pictures of some of the most amazing 2000 year old wall murals you'll ever see. And yeah, the pizza in Naples is absolutely AMAZING. The Archaeological Museum of Naples though is absolute crap. 90% of the stuff we were supposed to see was in their basement, there were cobwebs on many of the exhibits, I was actually disappointed about that. But they did have some impressive sculptures and busts, but that was about it. And amazingly, none of us in the group lost anything in Naples, even slightly after dark.
Originally posted by bunge
...and really cheap good table wine.
amen to that!
You're right though, it wasn't that bad at all. A lot better than people were making it out to be.
That's fantastic that you saw the really great stuff in Pompeii. I imagine that missing that stuff would make Pompeii kind of boring.