Genoa - Well, Well

Just outside the old gate to the old city (now named after Columbus), a beautiful medieval structure still stands. If you look at the column topper seen above, you can still see the carved angel. This column is one of the corner posts around a 5m by 12m open frame which seems to have been built around a well. It really is a lovely little park now, but I'm sure the practical nature of having a well within an easy distance of most of the upper part of the city caused this well to be highly decorated and highly protected.

taken June 2010 - just outside City gate, Genoa

Genoa - Lady in a bath tub

On the second story of most buildings in the old part of Genoa, there were icons of some fashion or other. Some of them were painted on, some were on a carved bit of stone and some were full sculptures. There seemed to be several favoured saints; George and Mary being the two I most easily recognised.

I'm not exactly certain which saint is pictured above. As there is no veil and she's holding some kind of urn, I know it's not the Virgin Mary (in any of her variety of roles). My guess would be Mary Magdalene, carrying the oil she will wash the feet of Jesus with. In any case, this picture shows the feature which one of my Category Widows referred to as 'the bathtub'. You'll notice that behind the sculpture there is a lovely concaved indent fashioned to best draw your attention to the saint on show... this indent is normally either left a clean stone or painted light blue. Yup, saints in bathtubs - Italian stylin' at it's finest!

taken June 2010 - Side of a residence... don't know who's though, Genoa

Genoa - Catedral's tower

Stripes... the Genovese love their stripes. Basically every church in this area has at least part of its building striped. I guess when marble and granite is so conveniently located in the surrounding area, stripes will happen.

As for the Catedral di San Lorenzo, it's all stripes all the time. Even the columns inside are striped. Other than that, the west door is incredible! Oh, and I got to see the local Bishop and Cardinal in procession on St George's day. Pure awesome. Oh yeah.

taken June 2010 - Cathedral de Lorenzo - detail of West Door

Milan - Milan Duomo

And here begins the fun of reliving my holidays in June. I hope you enjoy this as much as I know I will!

I'm not positive, but from what I can tell, Milan decided that Florence couldn't have the only Dome around and they build their own. (Yes, this is not a picture of a dome... very good.) The wall of the west door has an incredible collection of sculptures, as most west doors are want to do. The spires at the top were also lovely, and the shot above features a sample of these spires. Also, how cool is the moon? We could not have asked for a bluer sky or a more perfect day for wandering the streets of Milan. I also took this picture on the walk to see the church above.

taken June 2010 - Milan Duomo, Milan

Taronga Zoo - Koala

I feel very lucky to have caught the koalas at feeding time. Actually, I have never seen koalas move about so much (since they sleep 20-22 hours a day, it's not surprising to see them, well, asleep.)

The koala enclosure at Taronga had recently been closed for maintenance, so four of the koalas had been moved into the echidna enclosure. This provided me with excellent viewing, as the sunshine was beautiful and back-lit the koalas perfectly here.