Canon At the Ready

You may remember - or may not if your memory is anything like mine - that a few weeks ago while photographing the glories of Orvieto I dropped my trusty little Power Shot SD550. It has been a good little camera, not the best for interior shots of churches - and we do visit a lot of churches - or opera house curtain calls, but it I was happy with it.

I hemmed and hawed about getting a new one - but was happy enough with Canon that I went for another one. And I hemmed and hawed a bit to long. Now one of the perks of being a Dip here is that theoretically we should not pay IVA (the Good's and Service's Tax) on anything here over E250.00. I say theoretically because the system to get the tax deducted is worthy of Byzantium. Unlike Canada where Dips are issued a tax exempt card, here you have to go to the store, select what you want, get them to fill out a special form, turn it into the Government, wait 5-7 days to have it stamped, return to the store stamped form in hand to make your purchase. Certainly not conducive to impulse buying!

The old Kodak and damaged PowerShot are taking a back seat to the new kid on the block.

Unfortunately I wasn't aware of these "new" procedures and left it a bit late to buy a replacement camera. As a result I ended up paying full price for my new Canon IZUA 870IS. There was no way I was heading to Barcelona without a camera.

19 marzo - San Guiseppe

Loss of Focus

Yesterday was spent visiting the town of Orvieto, about an hour and half drive north of Roma. Its a lovely town built on one of the volcanic outcroppings that dot the landscape as you head up the autostade towards Firenze. What makes it different from the others was a miracle in nearby Bolsena in 1263 the effects of which the enterprising Archbishop of Orvieto had transferred to the town. This led to the enlarging of the Cathedral and ultimately in the 15th century the decorating of the Capella di San Brizio by Luca Signorelli. Its considered his masterpiece - and we were lucky, we had the chapel all to ourselves. The grotesques alone would be worth one of those lovely coffee table books.

Understandably photographs are not allowed inside the chapel. However I was able to get a few shots of the glorious facade of the Duomo and its rose window.

And those are probably the last photos I'll take with this trusty little Canon PowerShot that I've been trudling around Europe since our arrival.
About 30 seconds after I took these it went crashing to the cobblestones and though you can't quite see it in this photo (taken with my very old Kodak digital) the retractable lens was pushed out of alignment. No amount of gentle coaxing can get it back into place. I'm going to try and find a repair shop but given how these things are put together I'm not hopeful.

17 febbraio - Santi Sette Fondatori dell'Ordine dei Servi della Beata Vergine Maria whew!