Foggy morning

Sometimes you wake up, look outside the window, and simply feel like going back to bed....

Definitely a very foggy Sunday morning...

S. Michele hiking in Winter

Perfect day for a winter hiking.

The sky was really clear, and the view from S. Michele paid off the narrow road to get up there.

There was also some snow still on the path and on the "Pian Nave".

Hidden around you can find artifacts from WWI, when the whole area was protected by the "Linea Cadorna" in order to defend Italy from the Swiss army......

As usual I fell for the details.

On the way back to the car I snapped this B&W landscape that got quite popular on 500px.

American Military Memorial - Luxembourg

Swedish summer 2015

Looking outside the window, summer seems long time gone, no matter what the calendar says...

On the other hand you can always look back to your vacation picture and dream about warm days with blue clear skies!

Well, if you didn't spend the summer break in Sweden this year! 

I have to say temperatures in southern Sweden between the end of July and beginning of August weren't properly high, but for someone like me it was more than perfect! 

As tradition wants, I managed to take few macro shots just hanging around in the garden

You would expect some moose or reindeer while walking in the forest up there, but cows were way more popular!

Lower temperatures and heavy rain during the first part of the summer brought us very juicy blueberries...

....that were apparently appreciated by tiny snails too!

You might remember the photo-story of last year 30-km walk in the forest along the river... This year we went for an even longer one for a straight 6-hours march.

I really have to say that the path wasn't always clear..... can you spot the orange-marked pole showing the path?

It was a completely different kind of path, way more in the deep forest, but still characteristic 

Ten days passed pretty quickly, just the time to get used to the relaxed rhythm and it was already time to head back to the office... looking forward to the next trip! 

This is life, what can I do about it?

Singapore

On the way back from Bali, we made a short stop in Singapore for a two nights visit.
When visiting a new place, especially when it is quite far away from your home-town and you're not really sure you'll have the chance to get back another time any when soon,it's quite difficult to properly estimate the time you need to explore it. On the other hand we kind of figured out that 2 days would have been just enough for having a first impression of this very particular city, and in the end our estimation was quite on sport!

The first thing you notice when arriving in Singapore is the air humidity. Then you also realize the it's quite warm in there, but some how it's the humid sticky air that overcomes everything. That leads to a greyish sky and pretty flat colours... but hey, the scenario doesn't lose charm a nyway!
Of course the Sands hotel characteristic landmark would look even more amazing with a clear sky - or at night with its lights on - but it can still keep up with the expectations even on a dull background!

I went up to the top of the Sands hotel, and just for a lucky moment a soft breeze cleared out the sky over the skyscrapers for few minutes.

Being a financial world capital, Singapore cityscape is definitely characterized by big banks and financial services glass and metal towers.

Some of them try to stand out from the crowd with some different shapes.

The city-state of Singapore is also a melting pot of at least different coutures: with 4 official languages ( English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil) you can find at least as many neighbourhoods for each couture and share of the population, mixing pretty well with each other.
We were just at the border of the Muslim neighbourhood when I saw the heavy architectural building popping-out from the lower and older shops.
Doesn't it look as the Wayne building in Ghotam city?

Also there it was possible to find a touch of Sweden!

One thing I really appreciated of the city was the perfect balance between pop-culture with its colours and the more rigid and plain corporate appearance.

This was the last stop of our journey in Asia. I really loved it and I definitely consider the long flight more than worth. Still, will I ever have the chance to get back there any time soon?

Bali - May 2015 - Part 4

While staying on the north coast of the island in Bali, we went for a daily excursion to Pulau Menjangan for some snorkelling.
It took quite a while to get to the harbour where we embarked on a wooden boat for a half-hour cruise out to the small island. When it was time to jump in the water I was really surprised by its temperature! I'm used to swim in the Mediterranean sea, and no matter what the season is, it's always freezing! Here it felt like being in a hot tub!
We actually snorkelled in two spots, the first a bit more on a cliff, while the second was in more shallow water.
Both places were full of the most colourful fishes though!

In between the two snorkelling spots we also had the chance to walk around a bit on the small inhabited island. This was the view when getting back to our boat and snorkelling gear.

The second spot was with shallow water and corals

I have to admit one thing: I took something like 400 pictures on that day. Maybe this is a too limited selection, but I realized that the ratio between keepers and total shots with my GoPro Hero3+ is way too low..... anyway, there are situations like this where without such a camera I wouldn't have had any photo to share, so way better than nothing!

Bali - May 2015 - Part 3

After the first few days on the west coast, we moved on the north one. On our way we broke the trip with a quick stop for visiting some waterfalls.

From the car parking to the waterfalls it actually took a good walking hour in the forest, but I must admit that it was really worth the effort!

Just next to hour villa in the forest was a Buddist temple: how could we not pay it a visit?

No matter what the religion was, statues were all over the place!

Inside the temple garden there were also several colourful flowers, as more or less anywhere on the island

Just few minutes away by car was the holy spring where locals go for a weekly private moment. We were there quite early in the morning in order to avoid the big crowd that apparently goes there during the day searching for some refreshment in the heat. Anyway, by 8/8:30 it started packing up with families

And could you imagine what was in the villa garden?

That's all for today! Next week snorkelling in the ocean!