I Know You'll Guess Paris..

 I spent ages downloading photos from France last night, I hadn't realised there were so many, 

anyway this is just a small selection to get you intrigued.

Can you guess what's what?

A Bit More Of Chieri...

This is a link that will give you lots of information, if you want to do the homework.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/chieri/108510679172618?sk=wiki

The buildings seemed lighter in colour than in Rome, and more wrought iron.

Leafy balcony, with a faded sign.

Ancient doors aplenty.

The start of the market, in the town centre. 

A spire from one of the churches.

Fabulous sun dial on the wall of a church, and yes it was about 11.30. 

Typical side street.

Another charming side street.

More side street looking up to the church on the hill.

I think we saw this door before, a bit of faded glory.

The Market And Town....

The weekend that we stayed in Chieri, there was a special festival,
 and that also involved a market on the Sunday.

Looking down the street towards one of the old churches.

Things carved from olive wood.

This stall was full of delicious Biscotti.

These were like a chocolate almond shortbread, and we bought a bag to share.

From a bread stall.

Salami, the one on the left had Truffle in it and we tasted some, an unusual and strong sort of fragrant flavour.

One of the vegie stalls.

These Capsicum were huge, one weighed 800grm.

Various regional cheeses.

Honestly cant remember what this wasI think it's some sort of baking.

Bread and salami.

Looking back up the street, towards another church.

A lady spinning Hemp, she tried to talk to us, but it was lots of gesturing really.

A man weaving baskets around bottles.

A Carding machine.

Our Stay In Chieri,

After Rome we caught a train all the way up through the centre of Italy to Turin/Torino,
to stay with the family of a student Marg had stay with her last year.
It was so lovely to be in the country, and to stay with an Italian family, to reconnect and make new friends, and to see lots of different things.

Sunny breakfast on the terrace.

A beautiful hand painted ceramic table top, made in Umbria.

The view from the balcony.

The neighbouring houses.

More of the neighbours, directly in the foreground they had a mini farm.

The beautiful home, there's a basement underneath,
then the main house, and we stayed on the top floor.

Begonias in the garden.

Garden planters.

My Take On The Colosseum,

When you see postcards and pictures in books, they do prepare you, however I found the reality of the Colosseum quite different.

So big and huge and brutal, so in your face, you can't get distance without a helicopter or digital manipulation.

Any way that said here's my take on it.
I'm giving it to you in black and white, as I think it conveys some of the harshness and starkness.

There's a sort of fence barricade at the ground level.

Lots of imperfections in the stones .

It streches up and up, and you go round and round.

This gives a human scale, and shows how close it all is to the road.

Looking through the arches on the 1st floor.