Not All Who Wander are Lost - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

Not all who wander are lost.  At least not in Tuscany... :-)

You've all got to hear my opinion about Firenze (Florence in Italian) in my recent post.  In the week following this Renaissance mecca, we explored, in depth, the beautiful country-side of the Chianti area.  My nerves relaxed and senses woke up to the warm peacefulness (you know what I'm talking about :-)), until we arrived at Siena.  To be accurate, that was until we sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic in a what-seems-to-be a two-lane street, which was not even horribly close to the old city center.  I felt congested and difficulty in breathing.  Despite numerous comments online about how Siena is much more laid back compared to Firenze, we "fled" to the country side as soon as we checked into our hotel.

We picked a general direction to where the interesting topography of Crete Senesi is on the map and off we went.  After 8 or 9 or 10 (anyway, a lot of) round-abouts (where traffic flow at intersections is managed without traffic lights) and roughly half-an-hour on the main road, we veered off to the little town of Castelnuovo Berardenga.  A stroll and peeking about every corner of the town did not do enough to tame our curiosity and we knew we wanted to keep exploring.  Putting our faith into the hands of the land of Tuscany, we continued along the same street that we came from.  Voilà, there we met the work of a true artist.  The small vineyard with such graphic design, at the entrance of a tiny town San Gusmè:

Vineyard-San-Gusmè-Italy-Copyright-Jean-Huang-Photography

With such an image in hand, you can't say we were lost, can you?  We simply wandered into a magic land. :-)

Clarification: For kids that don't want to go home or disappear into the darkness of night after their parents fell asleep, this concept does not apply to you.  Wondering at night does not bring your to a wonderland.  Go home, do what a kid is supposed to do (go to school, work hard, etc.).  When you become an adult, you may qualify to join the league.

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It's a Jungle Out There, Watch Out! - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

Arno (Fiume Arno, in Italian), with a winding length of 150 miles, is the largest river in the Tuscany area of Italy.  From its origin in Mount Falterona, it initially runs southward and then turns to the west near Arezzo (one of the locations where Under the Tuscan Sun and A Beautiful Life were filmed.  More on Arezzo later), passing through Florence, Empoli and Pisa before eventually flowing into the Tyrrhenian Sea at Marina di Pisa.  So, yes, the Christmas-like image from Pisa was made by the bank of River Arno as well.

Florence was such a "mad house", not only because we'd run into either a museum or a historical landmark, or both, every step of the way, we'd be swimming in/with/against streams of tourists.  By day 3, we were hungry for air and were looking forward to a visit to the medieval streets in the Santo Spirito neighborhood of Oltrarno (literally means Beyond the Arno, located south of Arno).  

Our nice hotel manager offered to take us there on his break.  The words such as narrow, winding, pedestrian-only appealed to me.  Knowing how an easy one-hour walk can turn into a whole-day exploration, we gently turn-down the offer (he's too nice to lose a job over a client like us :-)) and went on our own.  But, but, no one warned us about this - it's a jungle out there,  watch where you turn your head to, or you may very well be faced with this: 

Look-into-the-Window-and-be-Faced-with-a-Rear-End-Florence-Italy-Copyright-Jean-Huang-Photography

P.S. To have future posts delivered to the comfort of your email inbox, simply subscribe here: http://eepurl.com/ba87a1. :-)

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In Rush of Harvest before Sun-down - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

I love traveling and this passion comes in many levels and for different reasons.  One of them, as I've also heard others describe similarly - the more places you travel to and the more people you meet, you realize how similar we all are in what we pursue in life, despite the differences in language, culture, and/or religion, etc.  

In the small fishing village of La Manzanilla, Mexico, it couldn't be demonstrated more perfectly, on one more level.  You see, before the sun sinks below the horizon, there's a hustle about getting the last piece of harvest in, whether by us human or the ubiquitous pelican in this little bay area.

What do you think?

The-Day's-Harvest-at-Sunset-La-Manzanilla-Mexico-Copyright-Jean-Huang-Photography

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