Tuscany Tour: Day 3 – Vinci & Chianti

December 13, 2014 by Steve in Black & White, Blind Photographer, Florence Photos, iPhoneography, Italy, Travel & Landscapes, Tuscany Tour and tagged Bell Tower, Black and white, Blind and Partiall Sighted, Blind Photographer, Blind Photography, Chianti, Chianti Classico, Church, Church Building, Coach trips, Day trip, Digital Photography, Full bodied, Holiday, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone Photography, iPhoneography, Italy, Landscapes, Leonardo Da Vinci, Museum, Olive tree, olives, Pasta, Red Wine, Siena, Tuscan Food, Tuscany, Tuscany in a day tour, Tuscany Tour, Vinci, Vinci Museum, Vitruvian Man, Wine, Wine tasting | 1 Comment

As we left the amazing Pisa, Chiara (our tour guide) gave us some more interesting yet gruesome Tuscany history about the Medici family killing everyone again and taking over more villages and cities. She also mentioned a man called Leonardo Da Vinci, “no way” i said to Sarah “I thought he was a ninja turtle, not a real man!” She gave me a swift elbow in the ribs, and Chiara continued.

Welcome to Vinci…

The image below is of the landscape that greeted us from the coach.

Sarah looking over the Vinci Hills

After taking in the amazing scenery, we headed off on foot to the Museum of Leonardo Da Vinci.

A view overlooking the town of Vinci with a bell tower on the left

A beautiful bell tower with purple blue sunrise over vince

A close up black and white of the Vinci Bell Tower

I really like bell towers!! 🙂

Sarah & i found inside the museum much too dark, so we struggled to see any of the fantastic creations on display. Sarah was using her iPhone 6 Plus with it’s wide aperture of f2.2 to view each design as it showed much brighter on her screen, rather than the dark blob in front of her (she’s a genius).

We did find a cool bike though!!

Vinci Bike

Now it was back outside to have a wonder around and see what we can find. It wasn’t long before we found a familiar object!

Vitruvian Man

Sarah wasn’t happy with the “Vitruvian Man” and thought Leonardo had missed something out. So we added something extra……The Vitruvian Man & Woman! 🙂

Sarah stood in front of the Vitruvian Man doing the same pose

Now for Chianti…

After another trip on the coach through amazing rolling hills, olive grows and vinyards, the coach parked right up at the top in Chianti where we were to do a little wine & local Tuscan food tasting.

I didn’t have time to take any photos as we were guided straight to our table and greeted with a lovely plate of local baked bread, olive oil, cheese and spicy meat.

The lady first pour a little Chianti Simple (table wine) into the huge glass and as she was going into great detail of how to hold the glass etc, i continued on the food (i couldn’t see anything she was doing, so her over complicated directions were wasted on me, lol). As i don’t really drink alcohol except a very full bodied glass of red wine on special occasions (normally 1 bottle a year and that’s usually Châteauneuf-du-Pape i receive as a Christmas gift). My thought is that if i’m only going to have one glass on rare occasions, then i would like one that i enjoy! 🙂

I really know nothing about wines, only that some are red and some are white, and some are watery and some are thick (like coffee, lol) and i only like the thick ones, which now i know are called full bodied! 🙂

Then she poured a little of the Chianti Classico (full bodied..Yay!) and that was much better!

But probably my favourite taste of the day was the 30 year old Balsamic Vinegar we got to taste! Wow, now that’s amazing, but expensive so didn’t get any to bring home! 😦

As we finished there was a mad rush to the little shop area. I stayed at the table as Sarah went to have a look and take a few photos for us!

Chianti Bottles on a shelf

Chianti barrells

look inside the Chianti shop

I hope you’ve enjoyed the trip so far?! Next stop Siena!! 🙂

⇍ Previous Day — Next Day ⇏

Tuscany Tour: Day 1

December 9, 2014 by Steve in Black & White, Blind Photographer, Florence Photos, iPhoneography, Italy, Travel & Landscapes and tagged Bells, Blind Artists, Blind Photographer, Digital Photography, Duomo, Firenze, Florence, iPhoneography, Italy, Photo Exhibition, Photography, Photography Exhibition, Tuscany | 3 Comments

Wow, wow, wow!! What a fantastic and surreal experience!!

After spending 1 week in Italy pretending to be a photographer, and being blown away by the beauty and simply magnificent sculptures, architecture & History of this amazing part of the world. I’ll try and bore you to death with my day to day experiences. 🙂

I’m trying to create a post for each day we were there (maybe extra ones too!) as we did a few tours which included Pisa, Vinci, Chianti, Siena, San Gimignano & of course Firenze.

First i’d like to give a big thanks to our brother Ben who kindly managed to wake up at 4:15am and drive us to the airport, guide us into the airport, check in our case and take us to the assistance desk, thanks Ben, we’d still be wondering round the airport now! if it wasn’t for you! 🙂

A screenshot of my iphone showing the Voiceover cursor surrounding the enabled airplane mode button on the control centre.

⇧ Airplane Mode ⇧

The airport assistance was fantastic and couldn’t of made it any easier for us. We even got to ride on the buggy that takes us all the way to the gate! I was the first to board the plane, and i couldn’t wait to finally enable “Airplane Mode” on my iPhone whilst sat on the plane! This may seem like a small thing, but remember this is my first time out of the country! 🙂

A photo looking out of the window onf the plane overlooking the wing and engine, with a beautiful coloured sunrise panarama!

I think my wide eyes and silly grin throughout the whole plane journey was getting tiresome for Sarah (she has been on planes lots of times). But it was fantastic! The best part is when the pilot “Gives it the beans” and accelerates down the runway when taking off, i’ve felt acceleration simular to this in different cars, but when you think just how big and heavy this plane is, it’s just amazing! 🙂

Once we landed at Pisa airport, the assistance were already there and waiting to escort us from the plane. They also sorted out our passports and picked up our suitcase. Now it was time to get our first Italian coffee while we wait for the bus to Florence.

A photo of the beautiful hills taken from our seat on the bus from pisa to florence. Also Siena is written on the road.

Sarah described the beautiful panoramic landscapes from the bus (i couldn’t see them until i got back home to zoom in on my large screen) as it took about an hour to get to Firenze. We then got a taxi to our hotel, as i read on trip advisor that although it’s only about half a mile, it’s tucked away in a small courtyard.

A sepia effect of hotel Brunelleschi at night with the old tower glowing out in the dark

Wow, the hotel was fantastic, and the staff were unbelievably helpful. Once we were settled in to our amazing room, and logged onto their WiFi. We decided to venture out a little and try and figure out where we were in relation to the duomo and the palace where my photos were being exhibited. We knew we were close but as Sarah & i can’t see enough to read a map, we could easily get lost and never find anything! 🙂

A black and white photo of the top of cathedral of Florence

Shortly after leaving the hotel and finding the main street, we heard the thunderous sound of the bells from the north (i think) coming from the Cathedral of Florence (Il Duomo di Firenze), The bells would make our navigation much easier for the rest of our holiday as the Cathedral was only about 300 yards away from our hotel, thank you bells! 🙂 We then headed back to our starting point and headed west, where we found an ever better point of reference!! (see below)

A whole building completley covered in sparkling blue lights

The twinkling lights on this department store were simply amazing to just stand and look at, but it was dark now and we didn’t want to get lost on our first day! All of the streets were decorated beautifully with illuminated stars, borbals & bells so after one more photo (see below), we headed back to the hotel. What an amazing, exciting and tiring first day. 🙂

A twinckling star street decoration in Florence

I hope you’ve enjoyed being with Sarah & i on my first trip abroad? Hope to see you on Day 2 as we explore a little more…!!!

Next Day ⇏

Weekly Photo Challenge: Achievement

November 18, 2014 by Steve in Blind Photographer, iPhoneography, Weekly Photo Challenge and tagged Cake, Christmas tree, Daily Post, Digital Photography, Florence, Holidays, IOF, iPhone 4s photography, Italy, Norfolk, Outlook magazine, Photo Challenge, Photography Exhibition, postaday, Rebus Photography, RNIB, Sunset, Weekly Photo Challenge, Weekly Photography Challenge, WPC | 6 Comments

Here are 6 recent “Achievements” from Sarah & i for this weeks 📷 challenge.

#1 RNIB’s Outlook magazine cover photo

My photo being used on the Outlook CD Magazine

⇧ The CD version of Outlook Magazine with my cover photo ⇧

I’ve had another photo published as a cover photo on RNIB’s Outlook 29 magazine. I havn’t seen the print, large print or Braille covers, but i have the audio version.

#2 Norfolk Hideaways Photography Competition

4 people sat on the beach wall with a beautiful sunset around them

⇧ Sunset 4 the people ⇧

Norfolk Hideaways had a photo competition for their calendar and brochure for 2015. This is the first time i’ve ever entered my photos in a competition. They replied saying the wanted to use my photo (see “Sunset 4 the people” above) for either the front cover of their brochure and calendar! Unfortunatley i didn’t have a high enough quality image (as it was cropped from my iPhone) to use as a cover shot, but they will publish it on their website, leaflets & inside the brochure. That’s still amazing to me, as i was up against fully sighted photographers, so even to consider one of my photos is unbelievible to me!! 🙂

#3 My Florence, Italy Photographic Exhibition.

Exhibition Countdown from my blogs sidebar

⇧ Screenshot taken from Rebus photography’s sidebar ⇧

Now this still blows me away…My photography exhibition in Florence, Italy. We fly out in less than 2 weeks for the opening (my first time abroad!) and to say i’m excited is an understatement! I still can’t believe that they chose little old me to exhibit in their museum! I’ll keep you updated and take lots of photos on my travels! 🙂

#4 IOF Certificate in Fundraising

Sarah Graduation 1

⇧ Sarah receiving her hard earned Certificate! 🙂 ⇧

So proud of my lovely wife Sarah on her graduation! Despite major difficulties following her latest eye operation, she managed to earn a “distinction“.

The graduation ceremony took place from 6-9pm on Thursday 6th November at Brunei Gallery, SOAS, London, celebrating the excellence of the class of 2013/14 from the IOF Academy.

#5 The cheese burger Birthday cake for Sally

Sally about to eat her Cheese Burger Cake that Sarah made for her!