Puglia, June 2015

[simato73]

I have recently come back from a holiday to Puglia (the "heel" of Italy), during which the lack of internet allowed me to focus on sorting files each day.
That is not to say that I also edited them, I am still in the process, but I have been more organized than usual.

I will start with a brief series of the place where I went snorkeling when my daughter was having a nap.
Not a place for a two-year old, but the water was pleasant, clean and went down quickly - more enjoyable for snorkeling in my opinion.
I had an underwater enclosure but only a few shots from the water were vaguely interesting. It turned out that although clean, the water was not that clear... All the other shots are from the same camera, the RX100.

[simato73]

The images appear more saturated than is intended, which is how they look in my Aperture library.
The original files are ProPhotoRGB TIFFs, exported as sRGB JPG's.
Not clear what the plugin is doing, I was assuming it was a "convert" type operation, but there is no place where I can select things like rendering intent.

[Anthony]

Simone, the images are not showing on my iMac - all I get is a series of question marks.

[Jan Anne]

They seem to link to dropbox which needs a login:
https://photos-1.dropbox.com/t/2/AAAFaj1EpwXkNVjy8k_LhU4cAzqZcwDi-LLud--RkAcivA/12/276500287/jpeg/32x32/1/_/1/2/Puglia_DSC7394%20(1).jpg/CL-e7IMBIAEgAiADIAQgBSAGIAcoASgC/491BsH2GqYRqy0eV-tTCNUWdm2SvfS3bohiKItnJf6g?size=2048x1536&size_mode=2

[Anthony]

I cannot find a link in the original message.

[Jan Anne]

I cannot find a link in the original message.

That would be correct, I used my admin privileges to see what went wrong but this is not something I can fix

[simato73]

They seem to link to dropbox which needs a login:
https://photos-1.dropbox.com/t/2/AAAFaj1EpwXkNVjy8k_LhU4cAzqZcwDi-LLud--RkAcivA/12/276500287/jpeg/32x32/1/_/1/2/Puglia_DSC7394%20(1).jpg/CL-e7IMBIAEgAiADIAQgBSAGIAcoASgC/491BsH2GqYRqy0eV-tTCNUWdm2SvfS3bohiKItnJf6g?size=2048x1536&size_mode=2

They do indeed link to Dropbox and as you can imagine since the account is mine, I could see perfectly the images.
I was hoping that others would too, but I was wrong.
This is strange since I have sent links to my pictures on Dropbox to relatives and they have been able to see them. Hum...

Please send suggestions on how to make images from Dropbox visible,  if you have any.
In the meantime I will look into alternatives.

[simato73]

I tried to make my shared images in Dropbox visible to whoever has a link.
The images posted are 5, but some links have been added in a different way, please let me know if it worked.

[simato73]

Having resorted to attach images directly, here is the fifth and last of the first lot.

[simato73]

Like in many places in Southern Italy, Puglia has some wonderful Baroque buildings.
The best examples are from Lecce, which is made from a lovely coloured sandstone.

Here follow some details from a church in Lecce.

[simato73]

I inadvertently fell foul of rules on files posting.
The next images will have smaller dimensions for that reason.

I have already mentioned Baroque and Lecce.
We were in the tip of Italy's heel, that part of Puglia called Salento.
Lecce is inland, and the capital of Salento. It was built inland, and it rose to promonence later than other historic coastal cities, due to lack of safety on the coasts, which were raided regularly by the Turks.
For this reason in Lecce there is noting of notice pre-dating Baroque (aside from some Roman ruins, including a partially dug-out anphitheater, which were discovered in the XX Century).
But the Leccese Baroque is magnificent, so much that Lecce is dubbed "the Florence of the South".
Touring Lecce with a daughter of less than three is not easy, but we have somehow managed (with the tactical help of some ice cream!).

[Anthony]

Thanks for posting these lovely images.  Puglia is one of my favourite parts of Italy (we went there twice in six months in 2006/7) and Lecce is a jewel. 

Actually, I have lots of favourite parts of Italy 

[simato73]

Thank you for the comment Anthony.

while LEcce is obviously the clearest and highest example of Salentine Baroque, there are also many other interesting towns.
Most of these are mainly agricultural towns of reasonable size (up to 50000 inhabitants, that is larger than I am used to in Tuscany) but they still have interesting Baroque centres.

One such example is Nardo', which has an interesting triangular shaped main square and a very relaxed atmosphere.
The following shots show some of its buildings and inhabitants.

[simato73]

Ours was first and foremost a beach holiday for our little girl to enjoy sunshine, bathing and sandcastles.
So showing a beach is a bit inevitable.
We chose an accommodation at walking distance of this one, which proved perfect for a child.
It is even a nice place, in the absence of other people, for example a few minutes after a thunderstorm.
I don't even want to imagine what this place turns into at the peak of the season...

[Frank Fremerey]

lots of very interesting shots, let my just take #2 / #7400: Very unusual long exposure with high waves. You must be on some piece of rock.