At some point in the first days of July, after realizing that my camera got more and more dusty every day, I figured that it would be time for a new big challenge for my baby.
So I got a group of friends together and we decided to spend just a few days in some cool locations in northern italy. But knowing that some of those citys would be far too crowded throughout july and august, we chose the second week of september.
DAY 1: Sept. 8th
VERONA
Departing at around 6:00am made us all feel a bit dizzy for the first few hours, but when we finally arrived in Verona after a 700km (435 miles) drive, at around 2:00pm, I was sure that it was worth it, because Verona is a really beautyful, medieval city with a lot of little piazzi and big clock towers. The biggest touristic attraction would certainly be the balcony of Juliet from Shakespeare's "Romeo & Juliet" Having wrapped up my pics of Verona after ~4 hours, we headed for the Lago di Como (Lake Como), where we arrived about 3 hours later.
DAY 2: Sept. 9th
COMO/VILLA DEL BALBIANELLO
On the second day we visited my favourite location, the Villa del Balbianello, an extraordinary villa, placed on a peninsula on the lago di como. Not only was it a wonderful romantic ambience,and the weather was just perfect, but it had as well already been a location for films like Ocean's 12, Star Wars and the latest James Bond. Later that day, we returned to Como, to take some pictures of its Dome.
DAY 3: Sept. 10th
VENICE
We knew, a pretty hot day was awaiting us, when we were baking in the car at 9:15am at temperatures of 25°C (77°F). Little did we know, that when we would arrive in Venice at ~1:00pm, temperatures would rise beyond the 30°C mark (86°F) with no clouds in sight. The city itself is one of the most beautyful and at the same time most crowded cities i have ever seen. It's impossible to not see the grandeur that venice once posessed, being the worlds greatest naval power. Even if Venice nowadays is dirty, broken and will probably be flooded in a few decades, no picture of this world could capture this very special flair. 5 hours later we already hit the road to home, arriving at ~1:00am.
Altogether, it was a VERY intense period of time, with umpteen hours in the car and a very limited number of sleeping hours every night, but DEFINITELY worth it.
3 days, 3 cities, ~1800km (1120 miles) car drive and exactly 330 pictures (expected it to be much more)