We have recently spent more than a month in Italy travelling from town to town, first staying in Rome, then travelling to Pompeii for a day, then leaving Italy for a week to visit Athens after which we traveled back to Italy to visit Venice, then Pompeii (again, this time for four days), then finally visiting Amalfi in the south of Italy. Here are some of my favourite photos from that trip, with captions explaining what they are of and, in some cases, their context. RomeVenicePompeiiAmalfi
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There are three styles of architecture chiefly associated with churches in Europe: Romanesque, which began in 800 AD, Gothic, which began in 1136 AD with the construction of Notre-Dame de Paris and Baroque, which began in1700 AD. The Romanesque style is chiefly influenced by the need to make maximum use of available floor space, with wide naves (central aisles) and simplified floor plans. Gothic churches are designed to saturate the internal area with light, with tall windows and large westward facing facades being common. Lastly, Baroque is a very dynamic style, with many elements comprising the decoration. Romanesque churches are short and squat, and generally have thick walls with small windows, wide naves and large circular apses. Apses are the large spaces to the rear of a church behind the altar. Gothic churches have tall westward facades with large windows and plenty of exterior decoration and, being taller then earlier Romanesque churches, typically utilize flying buttreses to support their upper stories. Flying buttresses prevent exterior walls from collapsing outward and are differentiated from regular buttresses by being freestanding structures. Finally, Baroque churches have very dynamic interiors with large statues displaying a wide range of emotions and poses and ornate ceilings being common, with exteriors that blend a variety of different elements together. In architecture, a column, also known as a pillar, is a support usually made of stone or marble and used to hold up a roof or other elements of a building. There are three major orders or styles of column and two minor orders that are variations of these three. They are differentiated from each other chiefly by size, decoration, and whether or not the shaft is fluted or not (fluted shafts possessing long vertical ridges). The Doric order is the earliest and most basic form of column, with a smooth capital (crown) and a very thick base compared to other orders. The Ionic order is one of the most iconic orders of columns, with a very slender fluted shaft and a capital characterized by the use of volutes (spiral decorations resembling scrolls of paper). Early Ionic columns had two long volutes on either side of the capital, but this meant they could not be viewed properly from the sides and later columns had four smaller volutes projecting diagonally from each corner. The Corinthian order is seen as one of the more decorative orders, along with the composite order, and features floral designs on the capital. These are the three "canon" orders, however two other orders exist that are derived from these orders. These are the Tuscan, which is a simplified form of Doric with a smooth shaft, and the composite, which combines the volutes of the Ionic order with the floral motif of the Corinthian. Columns have been in use for at least four thousand years, with Egyptians utilizing them as far back as 2600 BC. The Romans made use of the three canon orders of column: Doric columns beginning in 600 BC, Ionic columns in 550 BC, and Corinthian columns in 450 BC. Later Renaissance writers described the Tuscan and composite orders in 1537 and 1475, respectively. One subgroup of column is the Anta, which is a square column integrated into a wall and used as a decoration. There are Anta equivalents for each order of regular column Columns fell out of use in the Middle Ages and experienced a resurgence during the Renaissance before gradually being replaced by more flexible supports. Hadrian's wall was commissioned by Emperor Hadrian in 122 AD in order to solidify Rome's claim to southern Britain and discourage Scottish attacks. With a workforce over fifteen thousand strong, it took six years to build the 117 km wall which bisected Northern Britain from the River Tyne in the west to the Solway Firth in the east. Its width and height varied from three to six meters and three to five metres, respectively. Each of the three legions who worked on Hadrian's Wall (the second, the sixth and the twentieth) was divided into equal groups, each of which had responsibility over one 8 km segment of the wall. Small milecastles were built every one Roman mile (1.47 km) with two turrets evenly spaced between them. Larger forts were built every five miles (7 km), with small towns (vicus) usually supporting them. The Song of Wandering Aengus
BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS I went out to the hazel wood, Because a fire was in my head, And cut and peeled a hazel wand, And hooked a berry to a thread; And when white moths were on the wing, And moth-like stars were flickering out, I dropped the berry in a stream And caught a little silver trout. When I had laid it on the floor I went to blow the fire a-flame, But something rustled on the floor, And someone called me by my name: It had become a glimmering girl With apple blossom in her hair Who called me by my name and ran And faded through the brightening air. Though I am old with wandering Through hollow lands and hilly lands, I will find out where she has gone, And kiss her lips and take her hands; And walk among long dappled grass, And pluck till time and times are done, The silver apples of the moon, The golden apples of the sun. |
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