R. Doug Wicker's Blog, page 124

Fun Photo Friday — 54 Days at Sea, Rome Favorites Part 1

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Trevi Fountain

Above is the famed Trevi Fountain. Below is today’s Fun Photo Gallery of Rome favorites, Part 1 of a three-part Fun Photo Friday series:

54 Days at Sea — Roman Forum and Colosseum

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Roman Forum

Overlooking the Roman Forum is a very imposing domed building. This is Santi Luca e Martina Church.

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Santi Luca e Martina Church dome

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Santi Luca e Martina

But this is the new building on the block. Let’s take a gander at some of the older structures:

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Roman Forum

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Roman Forum

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Roman Forum

A mere eight-minute walk from the forum brings you to another very impressive ancient structure. This is the Colosseum. Construction began in 70 AD, and the Colosseum was completed in 80 AD, during t...

54 Days at Sea — April 12, Rome

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Roman Forum, Rome

MS Prinsendam left Livorno April 11 and docked in Civitavecchi the next morning. Civitavecchi is the port city serving Rome. By commuter rail it takes less than an hour to make the trip.

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Rome

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Rome statuary

Much of this excursion was spent at the ruins of the Roman Forum., and you’ll see a lot of that over the next three weeks in this 54 Days at Sea series. But the modern city offers up some sights as well:

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A funny thing happened on the way to the forum (click here for that...

Fun Photo Friday — 54 Days at Sea, Pisa Favorites

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Pisa Cathedral

Here is my selection of favorites from Pisa and one image of the MS Prinsendam arriving into Livorno:

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Pisa Cathedral

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Pisa Baptistry

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Sitting at the base of the Leaning Tower

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Pisa Cathedral

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Leaning Tower

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MS Prinsendam nearing Livorno

54 Days at Sea — Touring Pisa and the second “Leaning Tower”

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Pisa Cathedral

Wandering around Piazza dei Miracoli presents both opportunity and frustration for the photographer. The opportunity is, of course, the three magnificent buildings in the square — Pisa Cathedral, Baptistry, and Tower. The frustration are the throngs that meander in and out of your composition:

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Piazza dei Miracoli

As such, the photographer has to get a bit creative by often foregoing the broader view and instead focusing on a detail:

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Baptistry

But at some point you simply have t...

54 Days at Sea — April 11, Livorno and Pisa

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Pisa Cathedral

I’m going to cheat a little on today’s article, and I’ll explain that in a moment.

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Livorno, Italy

MS Prinsendam left Saint-Tropez on April 10 and sailed into Livorno, Italy the following morning. From Livorno you have two options for touring. One is a one and a half hour drive east to Florence, and the other is Pisa some fifteen minutes to the north of Livorno.

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Livorno, Italy

We chose neither that day because of bad weather. So, how am I posting photos of Pisa this week? That’s...

Fun Photo Friday — 54 Days at Sea, Saint-Tropez and Port Grimaud Favorites

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The Bicycle

As I noted Wednesday, Port Grimaud offered more photographically than even the more famous Saint-Tropez. In selecting today’s Fun Photo Friday favorites, Port Grimaud shots beat out Saint-Tropez by nearly two-to-one:

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Anchorage

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Balcony and Shadows

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Roof Tiles

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Window on Wall

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Port Grimaud Street Scene

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Closed Shutters

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Saint-Tropez Reflection

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l’Auberge des Maures

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Cuisine Provençal

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Blue Shutters on Pink Walls

54 Days at Sea — Port Grimaud, France

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Port Grimaud, France

As much as we enjoyed traipsing about Saint-Tropez, I personally found Port Grimaud even more photogenic even though it’s much newer than its neighbor to the east.

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Port Grimaud, France

Port Grimaud is a ‘planned’ town. It was built on reclaimed marshland in the 1960s, and the architect who designed Port Grimaud was François Spoerry.

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Port Grimaud, France

The town is crisscrossed with canals, and there are many pleasure craft throughout.

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Port Grimaud canals

Beyond the canal...

54 Days at Sea — April 10, Saint-Tropez

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Saint-Tropez, France

The morning after leaving Barcelona we anchored off the coast of Saint-Tropez, France. Here, Ursula and I would walk the streets of Saint-Tropez and take a quick boat ride west to visit Port Grimaud, which you’ll see on Wednesday.

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MS Prinsendam anchored off Saint-Tropez

Saint-Tropez is a wonderful little town with a lot of color and charm just waiting for your camera.

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Saint-Tropez panoramic

The streets hold many beautiful scenes:

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Saint-Tropez, France

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Saint-Tropez, France

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Fun Firearm Friday — Ruger 10/22 “M1 Carbine” tribute

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Ruger 10/22 “M1 Carbine”

Quick. What’s that rifle above? Any guesses?

If you took a quick glance before answering, you probably said, “That’s a .30 M1 Carbine.” You’d be wrong. I placed that rifle atop an M1 Carbine magazine just to throw you off. Here’s that same rifle, with the sling lowered to reveal an accessory rail, next to Inland’s new .30 M1 Carbine (see: Firing Review — The new Inland .30 M1 Carbine):

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Ruger 10/22 “M1 Carbine”

This is a Ruger 10/22 Carbine, which is a standard 10/22 r...