Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site
Main
Page This family-friendly site celebrates Italian culture for the enjoyment of children and
adults. Site-Overview
Lucca's
distinctive walls surround the town, as seen from space, courtesy of
GoogleEarth. See below
for more space images. These images
are from Google Street View of Rome
Street scene from a village near Lake Como from FreeFoto.com. San Gimignano in the distance, in Tuscany from FreeFoto.com. A view from the Chianti hills, between Florence and
Siena in Tuscany from FreeFoto.com. Crossing the "street" in Venice.
Click on the image to view more like it from PhotoRoma.com.
Some lucky tourists touring Venice. Click on
the image to view more like it from FreeFoto.com. Il Ponte Vecchio in Florence. Click on the
image to view more like it from FreeFoto.com. The Tuscan landscape. Click on the image to
view more like it from FreeFoto.com
The
Vatican's Saint Peter's Church from space courtesy of GoogleEarth I've traveled in 13 countries and
lived in 6 countries, and for me Italy has the most varied beauty of all
of them. The term bel paese is often used to refer to
Italy, and to a very creamy Italian cheese that has the map of Italy as
the logo on it's label. To give you an idea of how beautiful Italy is, or to remind you of
sights you may have seen while traveling there, this page offers links
to photo tours of parts of Italy. There are also links to poster/prints sites that sell
frameable images of Italy and Italian food. If you've never
used Google's Street View addition to their Maps site, now
is the time to start. Now you can have your own, private photo
tour of Italy whenever you want. Every day the
list of Italian towns photographed for Google's Street View are
expanding. Google collects the images and links them to their maps
pages, so you can search for Rome, for example, then drag the little,
golden Google Walker from the Zoom Bar to the map of the town.
When you do
that, the streets that have been photographed for Street View
become outlined in blue. Drop the Google Walker where you
want on the map, and the screen will automatically switch to Street View
Mode.
In the bottom
right of the screen, you have a box showing where you are on the map.
To move the view around, you can:
click on the arrows that appear on the
line on the screen, as shown above
double-click on the something in the
image to move and zoom
drag the golden Google Walker to a new
spot on the map in the inset-box drag the
mouse with the left button clicked down to turn the view around and
move it up and down. You can use the
Street View feature to: daydream check on the
hotels, sights, apartments, amenities for your upcoming vacation relive your
vacation go
window-shopping check on
property for sale feel like
you are there, walking along the streets of Italy, stopping for a
gelato, people watching, grabbing a coffee before doing some
shopping... Okay, I was
getting carried away there. Sorry, but I guess you can see that
I'm using the feature a bit. I recommend you do too! It's a
lot of fun. I include some images I've captured from Rome in the
left column, just for fun. This site offers photo tours of several Italian cities each with
roughly 30-40 photos with accompanying descriptions. Click on a
city name to start a tour. There is also a
company that sells DVDs of walking tours of Italian towns (about
15$ each but with discounts if you buy more, and they have other
countries, too) for people who want to watch them while exercising on a
treadmill machine. There are clips
you can watch at their website.
They really are like being there! I've not bought from them.
If you have, put a note in my
guestbook to tell me what you think. Thanks! Grazie! And here are
some free walking tours posted by tourists, on YouTube:
Tropea, Calabria
- video for the first 5 minutes, then still photos for 2 minutes, a
little rough
Venice - with
music and ambient sounds, very nice, smooth, varied views, good quality,
7minutes
Sant'Andrea -
not sure where this is in Italy, but it is fun to walk along with these
hyphenated Italians, 9 minutes, and then there is a second part that is
7 minutes (I think he has a crush on Daniela!)
Florence - 9
minutes, the music isn't necessary, but the sights are nice
Pisa - 6
minutes, Leaning Tower There are lots
more on YouTube. Look closely. The amateur ones are nicest. These photo tours come from the Photo
Roma site. There are more cities listed on their site.
I've provided these links just to give you a selection. Click on
the city name to go to a gallery of photos that are free to view and to
use. 52
photos of S.
Gimignano 313
photos of Siena 137
photos of Firenze 87
photos of Assisi 84
photos of Lucca 47
photos of Orvieto 118
photos of Perugia 68
photos of Pisa 87
photos of Pompeii 130
photos of Siena 55
photos of Roma 46
photos of Sansepolcro 67
photos of Venezia FreeFoto.com
offers free photos of Italy (and other places and many things).
These cities are from their Italy list. Click on one to open up
the photo collection. Apuane Alps
Claudia and
Pippo, site visitors, have created the beautiful site PM
News dedicated to sharing the Piedmont (Piemonte) region of
Italy with others. You'll find food, photo-tours, recipes, family
history, and get a peek into the lives of some lovely people. It's
a site to warm all Italophiles' hearts.
360 Sardinia offers lots of
photos, including 360 degree images, and lots of information for
visitors to Sardinia (there are links to more 360 sites for Tuscany,
Rome...). The site makes fantastic use of embedded Google maps,
so you can really plan your trip (or dream about one) in detail. This is a great way to virtually visit a place, and to prepare for a
trip. You really get a feel for Sardinia, an island that is an
amazing mix of ruggedness and sophistication. It's Berlusconi's
favorite vacation spot!
Victoria's
Beautiful Italy Photo Links
Barbara Val's Italy Photo Links Italy
as seen from the sky, roughly translated. These galleries are
of aerial images of Italian cities. This is not the usual view the
tourist gets to see, which makes them fascinating. The link above
goes to the main list. These towns are just a sampling of those
available. I show some images below.
Bologna
Center - Torre degli Asinelli Assisi -
Church of St. Francis
Florence
- River Arno, Ponte Vecchio Florence
- Palazzo Pitti and Il Giardino Boboli Florence
- Piazza della Signoria Bergamo
- Cittą Alta, Church of Santa Maria Maggiore Gubbio
- Piazza della Signoria
Pisa's Miracle Square with the round Baptism building, the rectangle
mausoleum, the cross structure of the cathedral, and at the top right of
the image is the famous leaning bell tower.
Rome's Coliseum from space courtesy of GoogleEarth
Rome's monument to Vittorio Emanuele with the Campidoglio to the right,
from space, courtesy of GoogleEarth
The
Vatican's Saint Peter's Church from space courtesy of GoogleEarth
Milan's cathedral from space, Google Earth
Milano Galleria Vittorio Emanuele from space, Google Earth
Milano's Castello Sforzesco from space, Google Earth
Chianti from space, with her golden fields
Venice from space showing the Grand Canal snaking it's way along from
train station to Saint Mark's Square and the Doge's Palace, with
Giudecca Island at the bottom, and Murano Island above to the right.
Florence's cathedral from space courtesy of GoogleEarth
Florence's Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens from space, courtesy of
GoogleEarth
Rome's Castel Sant'Angelo from space courtesy of GoogleEarth
Photo
Tours of Italy, Google Street View...
Introduction
Google Street View
Virtual Tours of Italy
Photos of Italian Towns
Barga
Carrara
Castello di
Brolio
Colle Alta
Duomo
Florence
Italian Trasport
Lake Como
Lucca
Marina di Pisa
Monte Carlo
Monte Pisano
Montecatini
Terme
Monteriggioni
Monument to
Victor Emmanuel
Pescia
Pisa
Pistoia
Prato
River Arno
San Gimignano
Siena
St Angel Castle
Sunset
The Capitol
The Chianti Wine
Region
The Roman Forum
The Spanish
Steps
The Vatican
Trevi Fountain
Tuscany
Venice / Venezia
Viareggio
Aerial Images of Italian
Towns
Some Aerial Images from L'Italia Vista dal Cielo...
