Well, very gloomy picture huh? But, it is interesting too ... at least for me for the adventure associated with it :) I was driving past Monument Valley towards Page, Arizona in late October last year. It was stormy. First I passed through light sand winds which might have caused millions of microscopic scratches on the windshield of rented car! Read more »

On the last day in Italy I went to Trevi fountain in Rome. Just before that We had a dinner with opera singers entertaining us. Lots of pasta, wine and tiramisu. A ride in Rome during the night was fantastic. The basilica in Vatican city was decorated with lights. It was breathtakingly beautiful! I wished my visa was valid for few more days that I could wander around on my own. Read more »

You must have heard the song Torna a Surriento which means Come Back to Sorrento ... is a popular song that made the comune of Sorrento popular! Well, I was there in Sorrento ... for few hours. Just to wander around the market. Our guide had arranged a touristy visit to a furniture shop. Initially, I was annoyed but then I liked the furniture there! I just got to know how expensive were those furniture in my sister's house which I was abusing for almost a decade! I really didn't have any idea about the price! Read more »

In my earlier post I did mention that Capri is a resort island. The nightlife is quite interesting here. From a restaurant I got the view of the marina and it was beautiful! And it is here for you to enjoy ... Read more »

That small opening is the entrance of Blue Grotto Do you see that blue?! The picture is not edited for color saturation! It is real! In the earlier post I mentioned that I had taken a boat ride around the Island of Capri , it included a peek into the popular Blue Grotto for few extra euros. And it was worth all the money! Sea caves are not new to me, I had rowed into few sea caves earlier in my life, but this one was wonderful! The blue color is due to the underwater light source, essentially an underwater sea cave! Read more »

View from Monte Solaro After getting fried under the hot sun and surrounded by the volcanic devastation I was at Capri, the resort island! Capri- plenty of natural beauty, history, pleasant climate and posh restaurants makes Capri a favorite destination for the tourists! Normally the islands are volcanic in origin but, interestingly Capri is formed of sedimentary rock. Well, it was a very relaxing long stay (2-nights) at Capri compared to other places. Read more »

Ruins of Temple of Jupiter and Mt Vesuvius in the backdrop 9KM from the busy city of Naples stands high is the Mt Vesuvius volcano! The most popular to have buried the Roman city of Pompeii in AD 79. It seems it spewed 1.5 milion tons of volcanish ash and molten rock per second releasing unthinkable amount of thermal energy killing 16,000 people! Well, even now it is considered to be one of the most dangerous volcano looking at the busy city Naples in the shadow it. Read more »

Assisi comune Well, another destination in Italy ... After 8 hectic days I reached Assisi in the afternoon and was amazed to feel the peace. It felt like in a soundproof town with plenty of fresh air. Assisi is a medieval sacred town in central Italy, around 90 miles north of Rome. It is the birthplace of St Francis and is popular for the Basilica of San Francesco. Read more »

St Mark's Basilica Historic city of Venice is described by many as Queen of the Ardiatic, City os Islands, City of masks, Floating city, City of bridges and City of canals ... and when you visit Venice everything seems right! For me it looked like a unique city with so many bridges across those islands! It seems there are more than a hundred islands separated by more than hundred canals and they are connected by around 400 bridges! With the unique cityscapes, art and cultural heritage tourism is a major part of livelihood for venetians. The tour of Venice was fun though everything I saw was touristy! Venice is considered to be a living museum and IMO it is also a tourist trap! Read more »

Well, package tours have some advantages. Our guide took us to some places where we could have demos on how it is made etc ... In Florence, a leather shop gave us an elaborate display of all their products and also a fashion show with some of our package-mates being models! In Venice, at glass factory of Murano we had a demo on how the glass artifacts are made. I liked it very much and took a video of the same! Have a look you will be amazed! --- Leave a comment to share your beautiful thoughts and constructive feedback. If you have enjoyed this article then connect with Google+, Twitter, Facebook or subscribe through email for more exciting updates! Related articles- Duomo di Orvieto- A medieval architectural splendor! Rome- A photo tour Musei Vaticani The Grandeur of St Peter's Basiclica Postcards from Italy If you want pictures please ask me :) --- Scrapbook- A Travel Blog by Kusum Sanu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported Licen...

River Arno and the city of Florence Capital city of Tuscany now, popular those days as "Athens of Middle Ages" Florence or Firenze or Florentine is one fascinating city! The birthplace of renaissance, Florence has few world famous museums and IMO the Piazza della Signoria itself is an open air museum! The full-size replica of Michelangelo's David in its original position attracts the visitors most. The river Arno passes through Florence and flows into Tyrrhenian sea. Read more »

Our guide started our day with- Today we are going to a place where thousands of tourists go everyday to make sure the tower is still leaning! Yes, to Leaning tower of Pisa! Ture! It is still leaning! It is a freestanding bell tower behind cathedral in Piazza del Duomo (Cathedral Square) which started leaning durning its construction itself due to the soft ground on one side. It tilted more during the 196 years of its construction until it was stabilized and then the tilt was corrected to some extent during later centuries! Its initial world popular tilt was more than 5 degrees it seems now it is corrected up to little less than 4 degrees. It has around 300 steps to reach the top floor from where one could get a sweeping views of the surroundings. The Piazza del Duomo or popularly nick named as Piazza dei Miracoli, was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987. The square includes the cathedral, a baptistry, the bell tower and the cathedral. The three structures whiter than white thos...

Massive structure with gothic facade, walls depicting the stories from testaments, decoration by glittering mosaics and massive bronze doors, is the Duomo di Orvieto, construction which continued for three centuries! The cathedral dedicated to Assumption of Mary was designed by many master designers over the centuries changing it from Romanesque to Gothic structure. The gothic facade of the duomo is one of the masterpieces of the time while the side walls are very plain with no art work. Well, after a hectic a day at Rome I visited this peaceful place of cathedral and cutlery! Do you believe the Comune di Orvieto is located on a hill top and that hill actually is an ancient volcano? And the cathedral stands right atop a volcanic plug? Amazing facts huh? I took the funicolare for the first time here to reach the hilltop! Funicolare is a short electrically run cable railway or cliff railway! Two tram like vehicles on rails are connected to a cable which move up and down the steep slo...

As I said in the earlier post on Rome- it is an eternal city! There is so much to see and know. The guide provided by the package tour was quite good enough to open as many windows to the city of Rome in that short time, I mean a day and a half, that includes Vatican City too. Well, I do not have some glamourous night shots of this fancy city! I visited during the bright day light though I have seen the city in the night with some monuments decorated with lights, well from a moving bus! Read more »

Roman Colosseum The capital city of Italy today and the capital city of Roman empire then ... Rome was considered an empire without end! It is one of the largest cities then known to the world. With the package tour schedule and anxiety I did scratch a bit of the surface of the destination- Rome! I was amazed to see that ancient city buried underground, partly exposed and another part waiting to be excavated! The still standing monuments are the symbols of wealth and power of Imperial Rome! Read more »

Gallery of Maps- Vatican Museum In the previous post I had mentioned about grandeur of the St Peter's Basilica . Next to the basilica is the Museum. Well, I remember saying "my neck hurts" many times! You know why? Ceilings are more grand and artistic than whatever is displayed on the walls and statues! The paintings, the gilding work, the frames and so on ... just breathtaking ... Read more »

Feasting on art in Vatican City I had been to Italy some time ago and never got a chance to write about the trip at all! The lingering taste of the place, art and food never seems to fade away! Thought of putting together all my dearest memories of Italy for you in pictures. I will post about each place in detail soon. I was tired of backpacking and thought of taking a first class package tour for 11 days to cover most of the popular places in Italia. The tour was good for an introduction to Italy! Read more »

Dead Horse Point State Park in Utah is a very interesting place. With beautiful scenery and sad history. Well, hiking here was a delight. On the way, I saw many interesting rock formations and twisted trees. This was one of them. Read more »

Largest lake in California or call it strangest backwaters, Salton Sea is a shallow rift lake located right on the San Andreas fault. This terminal lake with saline water is considered as a crown jewel of biodiversity! It is a major resting stop on the Pacific Flyway. The sea/lake was accidentally created by the flooding Colorado river when an irrigation canal broke. The current surface of the lake is 227ft below the sea level! Within 150-miles from popular cities Los Angeles and San Diego, Salton Sea is one of the lowest points on Earth! Read more »

Petroglyphs are rock engravings created by the pre-historic people by abrading or carving the rock face. V-Bar-V Ranch petroglyphs is the largest known petroglyph site in Verde Valley left by the Sinagua Indians for us to interpret. More than 1000 symbols are on display on this rock. The symbols- mostly classified as zoomorphs and anthromorphs are clearly preserved. Read more »