Thursday Doors, May 26

And so I thought to myself: I’ve got two blogs now, I get to have two entries. 😉

Another reason for this second entry is that today celebrates my friend who took these photos in Sovana (first two photos) and Pitigliano during his last visit.

I invite you to view two posts on my new blog:

• another set of Thursday Doors
• a happy birthday to my happy friend 

What is certain is that there will be no more new Thursday Doors on this blog, but the treasure-chest of past entries is here to stay and it can be viewed here.

Photo: Svemir Zeko

For Norm Frampton’s Thursday Doors challenge.

Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge: Tail-tongued

It’s been a while since I joined any of Cee’s challenges and it’s time to amend this. I guess I can’t resist a tail and a tongue.

A tail

Talamone

A tongue

Talamone

All together

Piran, Slovenia

Photo: a © signature mmm production

Another pair of tail and tongue on my new blog.

For:

SL-WEEK 44: The Reflex

Five instances of seeing something where there is nothing.

In order of appearance: Roma, Pitigliano, Capalbio beach, Porto Ercole, and back to Roma.

Roma

Pitigliano

Capalbio beach

Porto Ercole

Roma

Photo: a © signature mmm production

For Sylvain Landry’s SL-WEEK 44: Reflection

WPC: Fakeless faces

Some posted already, some new, some human, some animal, some artistic.

Il giardino dei tarocchi, by Niki de Saint Phalle

La luna, by Niki

Photo: a © signature mmm production

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: Face

SL-WEEK 43: Italian wetthings

Sylvain says “wedding” and I say together with the groom on his wedding day above: “I completely lost my focus”.

Here is first one image apiece from two weddings viewed from afar.

In Pitigliano

By the Tiber in Roma.

And now several from my only Italian wedding so far (as a guest!), held in Roma and in Ostia on the sandy beach. Mind the captions. I already posted photos from this wedding for the second week of Sylvain’s SL-WEEK challenge on the topic of Red.

Dog-friendly wedding, after some coaxing.

Learning the style early.

Well, I wasn’t the official photographer.

The wedding chapel from the outside.

The wedding chapel from the inside. Too late.

Off to new location in Ostia for the feast.

Lovely light and setting.

When one must, this is a good place to do it.

But also convenient if you wish to drown your hopes immediately. 😀

The meeting of the same energy.

Prettier than it tastes.

Still grinning.

But if you want to see really great stuff, check out Slovenian wedding photographer Samo Rovan who just won the title Photographer of the Year, awarded by the Wedding Photojournalist Association.

Photo: a © signature mmm production

For Sylvain Landry’s SL-WEEK 43: Wedding

Benvenuti in Toscana! Now get washed at 40

The task at hand: lure Badfish, and everybody, to Tuscany.

Wherever you go around here, there is a direction board pointing to Terme Saturnia. This alone could tell you that it is something special, but not exactly how special. If you don’t mind a bit of sulphur in the air. Even though the latest visitor said: “What a nice smell!” For the curious: The chemical make-up of the water is sulphur, carbon, sulphate, bicarbonate-alkaline, earth, with the presence of hydrogen sulphide gas and carbon dioxide.

Murky water

He appeared all of a sudden from the depths.

I’ve been a few times but have never seen it as empty. The lady was in luck.

She was pleased too. 🙂

The images in this post, taken two weeks ago (except for my uncle), show a part of the Terme that is free to visit and bathe in. There is quite a huge free parking space and one very easy-going bar that has refreshments, toilets and showers for a fee. There is no other infrastructure.

What there is is one hot stream, at 37.5°C (99.5.°F), that after a waterfall forms little pools and flows away almost a river. There is also the official spa a bit further up the road but I have no experience with it, neither do any of my visitors.

First it’s a stream like this.

Then there is a waterfall.

A look from above. The waterfall is to the left of the house.

Pools.

Agreeable.

The river flowing away.

You can cross it here.

The experience is very relaxing, and right now especially eye-pleasing since the field opposite is lush green. And nobody chases dogs away either.

Since my uncle knows all this already, he is coming over right this minute.

And to round it up, a little funny story from the day of the shooting, April 27. It was about 6 pm. All day long I kept hearing compatriots, first in Siena then in the Abbey of St. Antimo and finally in Saturnia, which happened for the first time in three years. Slovenians are unobtrusive like that. Must have been an agency trip, even though I saw some bikers as well.

The girl in the images below comes swimming by.

Unaware that everybody (well, three of us + bestia) can understand her, she exclaims in the dialect of my hometown: “Don’t you know it, in Ljubljana there is 10 cm of snow and it keeps falling heavily! Na polno!”.

Which is how we first learnt of the latest “NATO weather manipulation”. If you believe it.

P.S.: I’ll tag Badfish so that Google will have even more hits to display, hihi.

Photo: a © signature mmm production

Thursday Doors, May 5

A few weeks ago we had a lovely stroll along Via Appia Antica, one of the oldest roads in Roma.

We walked for at least 5 km and it was manageable even in high-heel boots over such stones as these, still original from 312 B.C. when the road was built, dent and all. (If you believe it. It was told most earnestly.)

First we had a lovely lunch at a friend’s house in the green.

Our host Sophia.

Bestia would not mind such a huge garden.

Bellissimo.

Neighbours.

The hand detail.

Then we went on our walk. One would expect ruins and not as many doors. Alas, where I go, there they are. It started with some unassuming gates but it soon escalated. The last nine photos were taken in six minutes.

All in all, an excellent Sunday. The second half of Appia Antica doors will follow on another Thursday.

And if anybody was worried, I’m over my overdoored state. Today I already took three new door photos. 😉

Photo: a © signature mmm production

For Norm Frampton’s Thursday Doors challenge.

Na zdravje, Alenka!

My friend, it feels like you were just here. Maybe because you were. Let’s see what all we did. (Story in the captions.)

The wall is okay. /Roma/

But I hear you prefer benches…/Pitigliano/

It’s better in two though. /Sovana/

Or in three. /Porto Santo Stefano/

You make a lovely family. /Orbetello/

Just your wedding planner is a bit out of shape… 😀 /Civitella Maritima/

…and sometimes confuses bridges. /NOT the way to Sovana/

But it was still a lovely walk.

It made us hungry and studying was in order. /Sovana/

Wow effect. /Pitigliano/

Matching colour scheme. /Porto Ercole/

Wow effect was on this side. /Capalbio/

By Lake Burano

We call it Spanish elder, they call it lilac.

The same field where I lied down and got zero poppies. /Capalbio scalo/

Matching colour scheme II.

Bodyguard.

Deserved rest. /Terme Saturnia/

But not for long: you are putting your shoes back on…

…and it’s action time again. /Capalbio beach/

Photo: a © signature mmm production

And a special thank you to Jože for this photo from Roma. We just had to sit down a little again. 😀

Dear Alenka, thank you so much for your visit and good times. Today is your birthday and no matter what have a cin cin in my name too. I hope to see you back here soon.

Happy birthday, tiček Lako!

Today celebrates my uncle Rajko. May the First be with you, like every year! And let’s exchange the views soon again, your Maribor (above) for our Tuscany (below). Cin cin and buon appetito!

View from the Etruscan museum in Ansedonia.

In Sovana.

With bestia and Niki’s Nana in Capalbio.

Photo: a © signature mmm production

Thursday Doors, April 28

One CAN get overdoored. It happened to me in the last four days.

Doors were attacking me left and right. When sorting the photos I got so overwhelmed that I almost missed the deadline for this week’s Norm’s Thursday Doors. Here is just a teaser: one door from every place that we visited.

We started out with a day in Rome: here the Embassy of Slovenia in Vatican.

The next day it was Pitigliano first.

Then it was a hike to (the wrong) one of the Via Cave where a door was the last thing I expected.

And we ended in Sovana not on foot as intended.

Day three, the monastery at Monte Argentario

Porto Santo Stefano

Porto Ercole

Orbetello

The WWF Oasis Lake Burano headquarters

Capalbio

The last day started with Civitella Maritima.

It continued with Siena with its magnificent cathedral. Wonderful visitors minded bestia for me throughout. Thank you!

And to finish off the door odyssey: Abbey of St. Antimo.

Photo: a © signature mmm production

For Norm Frampton’s Thursday Doors challenge.

Since I’ve only taken two panoramas in my life, I call my sister to the rescue. She has at least three, and they rock. I’m not sure if they are supposed to be so… tiny. Anyway, Sylvain wants them for his challenge and here they are. First both of mine:

Largo di Santa Susanna in Roma

Il giardino dei tarocchi.

Photo: a © signature mmm production

And these are my sister’s:

Vatican

Inside the Pantheon, Roma

Porto Ercole

Photo: Klu

For Sylvain Landry’s SL-WEEK 40: Panorama

WPC: Dinnertime, children

There was the subject of cook for another challenge not so long ago, so today let me concentrate on the places where we also eat when we don’t eat at home, even though there are some photos from there as well. More info in the captions. Buon appetito!

First Slovenia: a fish canteen in Portorož.

Bosnian restaurant in Piran named after the Olympic Games 1984.

The restaurant at the beach in Piran.

The best restaurant in Piran. Above the stove there is magnet saying “My family tree is full of nuts”. I bought it.

Here we eat in Piran if it’s not too hot (ok, or too cold).

Another restaurant by the sea in Piran.

This fish restaurant is in Ljubljana with the view of the greatest Slovenian poet and his muse.

Croatia follows: This is al fresco in camp Škrila, island Krk, Croatia.

Here we didn’t eat, looks lovely, Grožnjan, Croatia.

Back to Italy: Here Niki de Saint Phalle was making her barbecues. Il giardino dei tarocchi.

This is in Lucca and we didn’t stop and eat no matter how lovely it was.

This was the wedding on the beach in Ostia.

And this was Oktoberfest in Tuscany. Pub “Porta gialla”, Borgo Carige.

For my birthday they + dad took me to Orbetello and we had a great time.

And when you stroll around Pienza, this surprises you. Slow Food for Burkina Faso. Something sounds off here.

To return home: Did you know that in Italy it’s believed that one person eats 125 g of pasta? Slippers by UrsaNina.si

This happens when I ‘cook’ for myself.

I love eating on our terrace, whereas some others are afraid of flying bestias.

His father brought this. Five kilos of lamb. It fed us (and Bestia) for weeks.

His daughter made this: apple cake. Takes after father.

Ooops, this is not us. But they have dinner too. Buon appetito!

Photo: a © signature mmm production

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: Dinnertime

Happy birthday, my favourite artist!

When we were last in my country of origin, which is Slovenia, we visited an amazing artist who celebrates today.

She loves our bestia and this is a sculpture she made of him.

So far, she has been keeping a low profile but it is only a matter of time when the secret is out and she becomes a household name.

Take this frank portrait of her poet father, for example.

And here she is, hiding behind her muse.

The fact that she is only 9 today, should play absolutely no role. I mean, look at those snouts, and ears!

Happy birthday, dear E., and take over the world in your own sweet time.

Photo: a © signature mmm production