Rome, at the end of the third day

2 pillars, Rome, originally uploaded by - di.

Roma, non basta una vita – Rome, a lifetime is not enough.
Silvio Negro, author and journalist.

It would be difficult to tell you what I love more about returning to Rome …

There is the fact that everything, and I mean almost everything looks like some hugely talented artist designed this magical city that persists in surviving the passage and ravages of time.

I photographed 2 stone pillars today, set against a wall, as pictured and voila, isn't it art?

... a street close to the Pantheon.

Or perhaps it the fact that when I arrive in the same trattoria for the second night in a row, I am greeted with a handshake, a two-cheek kiss and kindness. It's a marketing technique that works with me but then again, perhaps I am visiting a culture that naturally and effortlessly has this way of building a customer base.

It is the food … for sure, and the fact the red wine costs less than coca cola, and that it remains more than drinkable at that price.

Today it was about spending the day with a Canadian, an American and an Italian and being taught about the difference between gnocchi made with flour and the real gnocchi, made with potato; about being lost, and then found, and simply delighting in the photographic possibilities that all but overwhelm me, she writes on day when more than 200 photographs were taken.

It's about returning to a hotel room that feels like home after one night and about meeting a fellow New Zealander working in reception. His story of arriving in Rome was a truly interesting one.

It's about waiting for a table at my'local' trattoria and discovering that I am waiting with Aussies from Sydney who have just come from Istanbul – my 'old hometown', and about falling into intense conversation on that cool evening in March.

It's about feeling at home in the world while suffering from travel sadness, that peculiar condition where I realise that no one knows where I am and that I am meeting no one for dinner. It's when I'm not sure why I'm out here and I have no idea what drives this impulse inside of me that is all about leaving … since I was 3 years old and could climb the wooden gate back home in small town New Zealand.

It's about this feeling Rome gives me … a soul-deep feeling of meeting an old and favourite lover, about a city I simply adore because Rome deserves only adoration for remaining when so many things have changed. And remaining so beautifully Rome.

Ciao.

No Paparrazo

no paparazzo, originally uploaded by - di.

Sometimes ...

a dad and his girl, originally uploaded by - di.

If you have your camera and people have forgotten you're there at the party then you get the chance to photograph some truly lovely moments.

The Potter, France

the potter pots., originally uploaded by - di.

Sometimes, it is the impromptu moments that gift a little bit of magic.

Did I mention the wolves in France?

The Wolves, de Chabrieres, France, originally uploaded by - di.

We drove 110kms to visit Les Loups de Cabrieres and were glad that we had ...

This is one of the images taken while wandering there.

The Potter, Meyssac, France

the potter, originally uploaded by - di.

Wandering in France

We've traveled more than 2,500kms since leaving Antwerpen, wandering the Correze and Puy de Dome departments of France.

We have explored Thiers, the top of Puy de Dome; the mountain villages Le Mont-Dore, La Bourboule, the absolutely stunning Collonges la Rouge and Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne ending that trip at Brive la Gaillarde in 35 degree celsius heat.

It was in that last town I discovered a shop called 'Otago Rugby, supposedly marketing rugby products from my home region back in New Zealand but instead selling a mix of the real and surreal. I bought a few postcards that combined the idea of Otago rugby with Maori rugby, Pacific Rugby and then very oddly – Akaroa rugby. It was both a delight and a confusion.

Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne was stunning. A small village that has followed the original medieval town plan, grouping its buildings around the church – a beautiful church that carried a whisper of Istanbul's Haghia Sophia in its ancient interior.

There were banana plants and beautiful palms there, fig trees and hibiscus too, in this place that didn't seem over-burdened by tourists. In fact, I'm surprised about how few visitors there are.

Collongnes-la-Rouge is breath-taking, although perhaps my opinion is coloured by the pottery and art found there. You find this small and exquisite village made entirely of red stone out in the middle of rolling hill country on the route to Compostella. You can wander downhill, in and out of small shops and even in the heat of yesterday, I couldn't resist the lure of the paved streets and the mix of medieval, gothic and renaissance architecture. I wanted to return with my camera and so we did the following day, calling in at Meyssac afterwards for a really enjoyable impromptu photography shoot with a potter there.

The other villages ...
La Bourboule whispered to me of New Zealand. It's a village surrounded by mountains but then you notice the Belle Epoque architecture and there's the French all around you. And Mont-Dore was once used by the Romans for the treatment of pulmonary consumption, brochitis, asthma, as well as nervous and rheumatic paralysis. The climate there is quite severe, or so they say but on the day we were there, we were searching for shade from the sun.

But the biggest smile of each day comes from the sign we pass on our return to this village ...
The sign reads: Plateau de Millevaches and translates as Plateau of the Thousand Cows and that's how it is, here in Correze Department, France.

a portrait

a portrait, originally uploaded by - di.

Antwerpen Central Station

Antwerpen Central Station, originally uploaded by - di.

The train station is being refurbished - note the small copper glow near the bottom of the photograph.

I had never seen the station from this angle and couldn't resist taking this shot.

The Tiger

Antwerpen Zoo Creature, originally uploaded by - di.

There's still work to be done in capturing this tiger but there's something about this one that stopped me from deleting it.

through the glass, originally uploaded by - di.

We were out in the car and I was talking to friends when I noticed little Miss Two looking out at us ... and the reflection ... and what could be, and so I photographed it.