Last month I went back to Italy, because I had a couple of conferences to attend. What I will tell you here is about the second congress, the GMEE annual congress, which was kept in Salerno this year.
GMEE is always a nice place where to meet old friends and scientist from any part of Italy and, moreover, a good chance to visit new places, since it is always located in very nice cities.
This, as I said, was the year of Salerno, and I was really happy with that: I had never been there before, and we would have also gone to Paestum, an archeologial site not far from the city.
I decided to get to Salerno the day before, so that I could spend a bit of time alone with my girlfriend, and that I could also be a tourist for one day (and tourist means... plenty of chances to take pictures!).
Unfortunately, the weather decided for me, I was not allowed to take pictures. It started raining almost as soon as we got there, and it just stopped when the congress began. What a pity... Not so many chances to take pictures as you can guess.
That's mainly why I had to wait for the tour in Paestum for the first shots around. Well... let's say: it was worth waiting!
Paestum used to be an old city of the Magna Grecia, devoted to Poseidon, Hera and Atena, which was founded in the VII century b.C., and then became roman in 273 BC.
In the archeological site, you can still see three temples, conserved in a quite good status:
- the Hera temple, on of the largest greek temples, built around 550 BC.
- the Athena temple (around 500 BC)
- the Poseidon temple, actually also dedicated to Hera, built around 450 BC.
More infos can be found on wikipedia.
When we went to visit this place, the weather was perfect, fortunately, great for taking photo. But this was a quite unlucky week, as I didn't really feel well that day. Good enough, this didn't prevent me from taking some shots of the place.
As soon as you enter the archeological site, you can see two of the three temples right in front of you.
The Temple of Hera is really impressive, and it really makes you wonder how they were able to build so magnificent constructions, capable of resisting 2500 years of history (someone might argue that today's building can't resist that well... and he he would be often right we have to admit).
The lines and the columns intersecting really offer some good chances for some nice pictures (provided there's not too much crowd around).
Just by the first temple, you can see the second Temple of Hera, mostly known as Poseidon's Temple.
This temple is in a bit better conditions with respect to the first one, and it's also more little.
The time of the day and the weather were perfect for this pictures: already quite late in the afternoon, sun at back, and some clouds to give the sky some texture.
Adding a polarizing filter added a bit of saturation to the sky, and I think the temples gained a lot from this, as they really stand out.
On the other side of the archeological site, you can find the last temple, the Temple of Athena.
This is situated on the highest part of the site, well separated from the others. It's fantastic to see it standing with all its majesty.
The same temple at sunset, with sun setting just behind the temple itself... It really looks like a fairy tale, doesn't it?
I wanted to take some pictures at night, but... as I told you, I didn't really fell well that evening, and after dinner it was the worst time of the day, unfortunately. Bad chance, since the temples illuminated at night might have been a really nice subject to take pictures of.
Back to Salerno, the day after the congress was over, but I still had some time before leaving. Perfect to profit for some more pictures. Guess what? Bad weather again! When you say bad luck...
I still didn't feel quite well also, but... I really wanted to take some pictures around, and I went around the city.
In a short while it started to poor with rain, and I had to recover in the hotel, but before, I got the chance to find a very italian icon:
An italian boat, in a very wide sense!
Here it is, again, in black and white:
Just on the seafront, where I was taking pictures of the boat, there was also a little shoe, probably lost by some child. While wishing he wasn't feeling cold to his little foot, I profited for one last shot:
I focused on the shoe, and closed the aperture enough to let guess the italian flag painted on the boat behind, and I quite like the effect I obtained!
Salerno was a very nice city, and I'm really sad I didn't have many opportunities to take some more pictures. I really hope I will be able to visit the city again, and... let a nice weather assist me if this will happen!
Cheers, see you next time!
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