KISSING
Graffiti in Valparaiso, Chile reaches heights not seen in many other cities. Homeowners will pay several thousand dollars to have the facades of their homes painted by well-known and talented graffiti artists. The city even provides scaffolding to the artists for free. Continue reading
The toboggan run from the 1984 Olympics.
Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is famous for three major world events. 1.) The assassination of Austrian Archduke Ferdinand, the event which sparked World War I. 2.) Sarajevo Olympics of 1984 3.) The Siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War, 1992 – 1995.
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Miami Skyline
Having a stop in Miami, Florida for a day is not one of the more exotic ports of call one can have on a cruise boat. Especially since I’ve visited several times before. However, I’m not yet to the point where I will not disembark and explore whatever the port may be.
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This photo reveals so much about Florence! It is often my goal to find that scene which can convey the most about the character of the town or place I am visiting. This is one of my favorite photos for that reason. Here is part of what this photo shows:
1) The addresses can tell the informed traveler this is Florence. The numbering starts over for each street, which is often quite short. So there will be lots of apartments with the number 1 or numbers less than 10. Businesses have a different number sequence than residences. Here the business address 14 is in red and the residential address is a blue number 6. The business address would be written 14r which tells the Florentine person it is a rosso or red address. The foreigner can mistakenly think this is an r for residential which is normally a black number, but is blue here. The numbering system does not even follow the simple rule of odd on one side of the street and even on the other. The distinction between what is a residence and what is a business is not always clear, such as searching for a bed and breakfast place which is a residence run as a business. Fed-X has their work cut out for them.
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Slide Show of Seven Photos
Visits to many of these port towns in Italy remind us that ‘graffiti’ is an Italian word. It seems that every spot, every corner is tagged with spray paint. There also is not much evidence that anybody is trying to stop it, no places sprayed over with tan or gray paint to hide the artwork. An investment in a spray paint producing company seems like a good idea. However, I wish to stress that Cagliari was a very pleasant, attractive town to explore on our own, no ship excursion. Preparing for the next phase of our European adventure, I bought our Italian phone here and a SIM card. The theory is that this will be cheaper than using our existing phones and paying Verizon for the additional usage abroad. So we got a new phone and new phone number and we should be ready to call our future landlords in Europe to arrange meeting places.