Moody Cinque Terre

While eating delicious pasta in a cafe, I took this shot.

Cinque Terre

One of the colourful fishing villages of the Cinque Terre. I think it's Vernazza.

My Cioccolata Calda

A nice spot to sip a hot chocolate and watch the sun set over Siena's central piazza.

Siena's Torre del Mangio

In the Piazza del Campo.

Approaching El Vaticano

Yet More Churchiness

Ze Library

More from Siena's Duomo, this is the Piccolomini Library. In the centre are the Three Graces.

Papal Heads

Siena Cathedral is the place to go for plaster Pope-heads. From above the arches, hundreds of popes keep the eyes on you.

Inside the Duomo

Love the stripey liquirice stones.

Duomo di Siena

Of all Italy's cathedral's, Siena's is my favourite. The outside is majestic, but it's the interior that wins. Please stay tuned for more photos.

More Castel Sant D'Angelo

Here's the same bridge, this time from the top of the Castel Sant D'Angelo. Sunset was only minutes away.

Crossing the Tiber

It looks tranquil now in the light of the setting sun, but this bridge across the Tiber in front of the Castel Sant D'Angelo was in previous centuries a location where miscreants were hung.

El Pantheon

My favourite historical site in Rome, this ex-Roman temple is nearly 2,000 years old. My 14 year old kitchen is already falling apart already, so how on earth can this ancient building still be standing?

Keeping Xmas Alive

I'm proud to say that halfway through January, I'm still Christmassy. The decorations and cards still adorn my lounge; there are several packets of mince pies left in the fridge, and I haven't consumed all of the Christmas chocolate yet; some presents are still to be unwrapped, and a handful of nearby houses still have Christmas lights and decorations visible as I drive past at night, although the numbers are dwindling by the day. Hopefully my personal Yuletide will last until at least February.

Immersive Cinema

Watching The Desolation of Smaug today, as the heroes trudged across the Misty Mountains, it felt so appropriate that the cinema's air conditioning was blasting frigid wintry air at me. It added to the experience as I felt the bone-chilling cold that Bilbo and the dwarves were experiencing on screen. And then it struck me people would pay for an even more immersive experience. Here are some ideas (should any cinema executives be reading this).

* Crossing a desert, the cinema's heating should be turned up to the max. And grains of sand would be blown at us.
* In rain, a misty shower would dampen the patrons from ceiling sprinklers
* In a turgid swamp, the smell of rotten eggs would waft through the aisles
* In the misty dark, dry ice would be pumped in.
* For spider scenes, cobwebs would be dropped from the ceiling

This added experience would enhance enormously the feeling of being a part of the story. In particular, a ghost or horror film could scare the wits out of people should some well-timed effects be added.

UPDATE

Imagine you're at the cinema waiting for the previous session to end. The doors open and the patrons from the previous session emerge, all covered in fake blood and screaming. What a perfect promotion for the film Carrie.

El Spanish Steps

Near the Spanish Steps

The Colosseum at Sunset

Every time I visit the Colosseum, it is more complete. Next time, I fully expect a roof, and a functioning Burger King inside.

Fun fact: over half a million people were killed in this stadium.

More from the Poplar Square

Piazza del Popolo from another angle. Note the fountains at the base of the obelisk, with lions spewing forth water.

Piazza del Popolo

As you no doubt already know, this obelisk is from the ancient Egyptian city of Heliopolis, and the carving was finished off by the pharoah Rameses II on one of his days off.

And it's appropriate that the sun is glowing behind it since Heliopolis means "city of the sun" in Greek.

Italia

Harking back to my recent trip to Italy, here's a street a block away from my hotel, the Forum. The modern cars somewhat spoil the retro effect, but I'm still happy with the feeling. This was post-processed in Camera+ for the iPad.

Lawn Coolness

Finally I'm emerging from my Christmas and New Year lassitude, and have returned to my important duties of blog posting. And it took the warmest night in Perth's recorded history to prompt me to write.

Last night, I watched the thriller Prisoners at Kings Park's Moonlight Cinema, and it was delightful to lie on the cool lawn amongst the gum trees. My thermometer watch recorded the temperature as the evening progressed. At sunset, the official Perth temperature was a sizzling 35 C, but on the grass, it was a mild 27 C. And within an hour, the temperature was 24 C in Kings Park, compared to 34 C in Perth. It actually felt chilly at times, and people around me rugged up as a refreshingly chilly breeze wafted over us. Once the film finished, it was shocking to leave the green refuge of the park and return to the suburbs and experience the wall of heat outside my house.

The reason I mention this is to remind everyone that greening the suburbs with trees and lawns has such a beneficial effect in reducing the heat island effect, I only wish more councils recognised this and spent more time planting trees rather than bulldozing remnant bushland and removing mature street trees.

UPDATE Do plants act as natural evaporative air conditioners? The humidity rising from a lawn and other plants must have an effect at capturing heat from the air.