Grad Trip - Photo of the Day 24

May 15, off to Naples! But first, a trip up to Mount Solero, the highest point on Capri island, was in place. But alas, this was the FIRST cloudy day in two weeks. I couldn't believe it. But at least the chair lift up was quite interesting:

And I managed to take a shot of the Isole Faraglioni, three distinctive limestone stacks at the southwest of the island.

I had been gathering lots of information nuggets about Naples in the days leading up to this -- most people living in the Amalfi coast would have gone up to Naples at least a few times before, since it is the biggest city in Southern Italy. I was mostly worried about the safety of my belongings. So as I got off the ferry at Beverello port in Naples, I went on high alert immediately, paying attention to anyone who got near me. Quickly checked into my hostel, which was just a few hundred metres away.

And then I got out on the streets. The paranoia hadn't gone away, and that evening, everyone on the street was a pickpocket/snatch thief to me. But that didn't stop me from walking around with my camera out! It just stopped me from changing lenses on the streets.

My photo of the day:

Looks like the rubbish situation in Naples is not as bad as they say! I mean, people actually use the dustbins and follow rubbish disposal procedures!

Had some really good margherita pizza that night at the famous Sorbillo pizzeria. I would go back there at least two more times during my stay in Naples...

And here's the coin machine in the lift that goes up to my hostel. On weekdays, the lift is 5 cents per ride.

© Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

Super old-school!

Grad Trip - Photo of the Day 23

May 14, the day that started out great and ended terribly. I took a boat trip around the island that morning, and took some of the best landscape pictures for the entire trip. Then in the afternoon, after I inserted my Sandisk Ultra II SD card into a photo printing machine somewhere in town, the card got corrupted and can't be read anymore.

At least I still have my Lexar. Couldn't do anything about the spoilt card, so I slipped in the Lexar, then went on to take a walk about town. This photo was taken from Anacapri:

© Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

You can see Marina Grande, as well as parts of the Sorrento Peninsular. Too bad I wasn't really in the mood to appreciate the views that evening...

Grad Trip - Photo of the Day 22

May 13, from Positano to Capri. Another day on the move, and just like other similar days, I took it slow. Spent the better part of the morning just lounging around the hostel and chatting with the owner Christiana (hope I spelt it correctly!) and Ming Joo, another guest in the hostel. And I took some pictures of Christiana and her pet dogs:

Kiki (hope I spelt it correctly, once again), the little one, was due to have surgery that coming friday for a broken bone in her leg. Hope she is recovering well...

Capri is the most well-known among the three islands in the Gulf of Naples, and is a popular day-trip destination for many tourists who stay in Naples. The two main towns on the island are Capri and Anacapri. On my day of arrival, I decided to just walk around Anacapri town, where I was staying. And I stumbled upon a sports centre for the locals, and hung out around there watching some locals playing football for a couple of hours before heading back to my hotel for the night.

There were initially a bunch of teenagers playing:

Then came the older lads, who were playing a best of three series of matches. The losing team will buy groceries and cook dinner for everyone, as one of the lads from the blue team, Luigi, explained to me. They didn't have the fastest feet but they sure passed and shot well!

© Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

Shooting through the fence was tough though. Even though the 60mm focuses very fast, there were still plenty of misses. The match ended at 6-6. Good luck to Luigi and friends for the remainder of the series!

It was a great day for photos, even though I was really just bumming around the whole day...

Grad Trip - Photo of the Day 21

May 12, took a walk with the Gods. Kind of. I signed up for a hiking tour of the Path of the Gods, which started from neighbouring Praiano town and ends at Positano, where I was putting up. The climb was a little tiring but once up there, the path is flat and the views are stunning. Just make sure you don't fall off -- the path runs along many sheer cliffs. Some views along the way:

Before the end of the walk, we had lunch at Trattoria Santa Croce, a small family-run eatery in Nocelle, a small, sleepy town above Positano. This is where I had the best pasta I ate during my entire trip -- paccheri with shrimp and rocket:

© Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

It's my photo of the day simply because it's the best pasta I've ever had. Haha. It's a very simple dish but it just tasted so good.

I reached my hostel at around 4pm that evening, and just rested there for the rest of the day. The walk took a lot out of me!

Grad Trip - Photo of the Day 20

May 11, a day of mixed fortunes. After lunch, I headed down to Amalfi, where I caught my bus to Positano. Unfortunately, I couldn't communicate my destination to the bus driver and got off at the wrong stop. Turns out that there are two stops in Positano, one very near my hostel, and one very far from it. Positano, anyway, is known as the most beautiful town in the Amalfi coast and I'll agree. But it's hardly the best place to take a walk around -- the roads are long, winding and very slopy. The secret to getting around is to find the secret stairs that run through the town, just that a newcomer like me wouldn't have known about them. The map is useless too, because the terrain is too hilly to make any sense out of it. A shot I took along the way:

You can tell the views were breath-taking, but I was already a little short of breath hauling my pack up the hill.

Somehow I made it to my hostel and soon after, in came three Spanish ladies who'd checked in for the night. And they invited me to join them on a motor boat that they were going to rent at the beach. How can I say 'no' to that? Haha. Anyway the sunlight was beautiful that evening, and I put my gear to some use that evening:

But my favourite has to be this one:

© Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

All the while I was a little worried that the boat will capsize, since ALL my camera equipment was with me, but we were lucky. Thanks to Ana, Alicia and Alejandro for the wonderful evening!

And that night, I saw a red moon for the first time ever. A slight pity that I deleted the pictures by accident, but they didn't do justice to the beauty of the view anyway. And to anyone interested to staying in Positano on the cheap, Hostel Brikette is where you want to be.

Grad Trip - Photo of the Day 19

May 10, in the hilltop tourist town of Ravello. For a change, I start with my photo of the day, which I took shortly after waking up -- the view of the Amalfi coast outside my hotel room was stunning that morning.

Somehow I had a compulsion to convert my photos of this day to B&W when I was processing them. After a quick breakfast, I took a walk to the nearby Villa Cimbrone:

© Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

Lunch was at a cafe in the centre of town, and I spent the rest of the day resting in my hotel room and doing some photo-editing. And Ravello is a great place to just chill out because it's so quiet.

Grad Trip - Photo of the Day 18 (aka Murderer at the Mill)

May 9, went on a day-trip to the tourist town of Amalfi en route to Ravello. Trains don't run along the Amalfi coast, so I took a bus from Salerno to Amalfi. And what a ride it was! The views were simply amazing. But I must admit, the coastal roads are a nightmare to drive along -- they are narrow and winding, and there are quite a few tight turns where there are no mirrors. So if you ever come here, do take a bus or a boat and leave the car at home.

Amalfi itself is quite a pretty town, pity I couldn't get to any good vantage points to shoot it. But I did manage to get this shot just as I was about to leave the place:

My shot of the day, however, is something special. Amalfi is known for its hand-made paper -- the streams that run down from the mountains make it easy to tap the water power to run the paper-mills. And so they have a Museo della Carte (Paper Museum) there, which showcases working versions of machines used to make paper, dating as far back as the 13th century. And as there weren't many people when I was there, some ideas came into my head... No tripod but I did have my Gorillapod, so had to improvise. The biggest problem, as usual, was finding a place to mount the Gorillapod.

The final setup:

See that shadow at the bottom? It's a saw used to cut the processed paper. So what better way to get it out of the way than to use it as a prop? (not that the museum people will approve of it) And it really added a lot to the whole theme of the picture, and hence the title "Murderer at the Mill".

Experimented with a few poses, and I must admit I'm hardly the most expressive model around. And it would have been a lot quicker if I weren't on my own, of course. Having to pose and then check the camera oneself makes things a little tiring. I like this one:

But this is my favourite (and therefore is my photo of the day):

Almost immediately after I took this shot, a truckload of Italian kids arrived at the scene. Waited for a while and but realised there're still another two truckloads coming in, so I went off without attempting more shots.

After all that fun, I had a very late lunch before heading up to the hilltop town of Ravello. Spoke to an Irish couple I met during lunch about it, and it turned out to be as tranquil and charming as they say. They'd been there to attend a wedding. That evening, I encountered two couples who were holding their wedding in the churches there. And I could see why...

© Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

That's just the view from the bus stop at Ravello. More to come in the next post...

Grad Trip - Photo of the Day 17

May 8, explored the ruins of Paestum. Took me a while to find the place -- got there with the help of fellow lost tourists. The ruins are quite spectacular but somehow I wasn't as thrilled as I thought I would be. I guess my photographic interests have really shifted more into portraiture and still-life. Anyway, here are some pictures:

All taken with the 16-85mm and polariser. I'm finally rediscovering the joy of shooting with a polariser... And here's my favourite of the day:

© Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

By around 2pm I had seen just about everything (including a tour of the museum) and headed back to my hostel, where I took a nap before heading out for a quick bite in the early evening. Spent the rest of the evening munching on some really cheap baguette (0.87 euros for three 12-inch ones!?) and clearing up pictures.

Grad Trip - Photo of the Day 16

May 7, the day R left for Brussels (and then home), while I headed to the sleepy port town of Salerno alone. During the planning stages of the trip I was actually looking forward to this part of the trip, but despite our squabbles earlier on, R has proven to be a good travelling companion. But well, the trip must go on.

Sent her to the airport that morning, and while waiting for my train back to central Rome took this with my 60mm -- I'd only brought the camera with this lens and nothing else for the sending-off.

The Leonardo Express is the expensive but fast and direct train back to the central station. I took the half-price option, which was only a little slower.

And I managed to snap a shot of the metro trains on the way back too. It amuses me that they are so badly vandalised.

As mentioned I was a little down that day, and somehow was quite tired too. I hadn't been sleeping a lot the whole trip -- trying to stay up after long days of sightseeing to fix up the photos and doing these posts had taken its toll on me, I suppose.

But this day was a turning in another way-- it marked the revival of my 16-85mm lens, which had almost never been used so far in this trip. The first reason is simple: now that I'm alone, it's a little more tricky to keep changing lenses (which is quite necessary with the 60mm + 12-24mm combination that I'd been using till now) as there is no one to look out for me. Another reason is that I'm now on the Amalfi coast, where there is plenty of sea and sky, unlike the first half of the trip. And I only have a polariser for my 16-85mm.

Ok I ramble too much. I'd gotten a restaurant recommendation from the desk staff member at my hostel, and had dinner there. Salerno is a small town and probably doesn't see too many tourists, and the restaurant was accordingly homely. Had spaghetti with clams and grilled fish with a dessert sampler. Fantastic stuff. And this was the kindly man who served me:

© Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

He couldn't really speak much English, and me Italian, but it kinda worked out in the end, with the help of my phrasebook. (thanks to Jasmin for persuading me to get one) Oh and this was the day when everyone started thinking I'm Japanese.

Onward to more adventures along the Amalfi coast as a fake Japanese tourist...

Grad Trip - Photo of the Day 15

May 6, last day in Rome. And we headed out to Via Appia Antica, one of the oldest and most important roads of the Roman empire. It's basically a long stretch of stone road in the fringes of Rome. It's a really pleasant place to walk about and chill out -- there aren't that many people around, which makes you forget you're actually in Rome!

Quite like this shot:

But my favourite picture of the day has to be this one: (Uploaded without permission from R. Haha)

Done with flash! It was surprising that the IR signal could reach the remote SB800 in front of the door. Bravo! Anyway we were quite afraid that the house owner would come out and chase us away, so didn't attempt that many shots. But at least we ended up with one good shot.

In the evening, we headed back to town, and found time to visit the Pantheon, an old temple originally built to worship pagan gods. I'm no architecture buff, but according to descriptions, the dome of the Pantheon is an architectural wonder. Unfortunately, the place was turned into a place of worship by Christians when Christianity pervaded Rome and all the original pagan monuments have been moved or destroyed.

Before we headed off for a nice dinner, we noticed this cute little girl and and her other brother and sister playing in the piazza just in front of the Pantheon. And this shot is going into my series on drinking fountains:

© Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

Last night in Rome... Tomorrow begins my journey down the less travelled path: Naples and the Amalfi coast. It's supposed to be highlight of my trip, and for better or worse, I'll be going the first half of it alone.