I had a lot of fun catching people in interesting situations. Some of these are from Verona Carnivale and others are just street photos. Look for more people shots soon!
Fun with People
The Long Walk.
Vinitaly 2016
We were lucky enough to be invited to the biggest Italian Wine trade show- Vinitaly. Celebrating 50 years of wine stewardship and innovation. This year the focus was on Biodiversity and Sustainability. There were also a lot of presentations on women in the wine industry. The best tastings are by invitation only so you can actually spend time with the wine makers. We attended 3 of these tastings and ended the day with a Grappa tasting and and Olive Oil tasting to round things out. It was great to taste wines from regions I have not previously tried like Puglia. We tasted everything from sparkling to desert wines. We also had the privilege of watching a tasting using a new decanter from Murano. Thousands of tiny glass beads aerate the wine in seconds. Innovation is fascinating!
Innovation- Decanting wine
Innovation- decanting wine
The wineries we tasted from were Amansuola from Puglia, Villa Rinaldi from Alto Adige, Speri from Valpolicella, Bertagnolli provided the Grappa and Redoro provided the Olive Oil.
Cesari
Cesari
Olive Oil Tasting
Vivienne, Robb, Ivan Russo and Diego Begalli
We walked about 4 miles all over the fairgrounds in Verona. Mostly crossing back and forth from Veneto to Alto Adige and Trentino with a side visit to the Agribusiness arena for the Olive Oil tasting.
Modena
. Once you taste the DOP (or Protected Designation of Origin) you will understand why the process and name are protected. 16 years to make 12 year old Balsamico, 30 years to make 25 year old. All ingredients including the barrels must be from Modena. There is a consortium that supervises the process and visits the houses. They can only bottle 3% of their total inventory in any given year. The flavor of the vinegar is not “infused” or added after the fact, it comes from the wood the vinegar is aged in. Chestnut, Cherry, Oak, Juniper. Each barrel is of one kind of wood only. To get a mixed wood flavor the vinegar moves from one type of barrel to another as the aging takes place. Each time it moves, it picks up character and flavor from the barrel it is placed in. Our favorite was the Juniper with the mixed wood coming in second.
We visited the beautiful city of Modena. Home of the Aceto Balsamico. Balsamic vinegar.
We had a tasting at the home of Acetaia di Giorgio
The house we visited has been making Balsamico for 120 years.
Verona Cityscapes
Verona has incredible views all round the city. Everywhere you look there is beauty, majesty, history, elegance. There is also the wonderful shabbiness of an old, old place with few pretenses.
The Roman ruins here tend to insert themselves into everything. There is a little something around every corner. A pillar, a door medallion, a piece of wall or an entire arena. The city just begs to be photographed. Over ten years of coming here and I still can’t take enough pictures. The light on this day is better or the clouds more interesting. I see things all the time that I have missed as I walked by dozens of other times. I still walk around looking up with my mouth open as if it were my first visit.
Spring comes to Verona
Spring is slipping in with the rain and warmer temperatures. It’s sneaking up and it’s bursting out all at the same time. The peach tree outside my window has been working its way up to blooming for a week. Everyday I wait for Moses to be busy elsewhere in the apartment and then I hang out the open window with my camera capturing the change in the buds on the tree.
Still Life With Cat Studio
hello and welcome to still life with cat studio. I am a photographer, a cat lover, a traveler (currently residing in Italy) and a knitter. I also love to cook and eat and drink. What else do you need to know? This blog is about pictures. Photo art, nature photos, street art and of course pictures of Moses my cat. I hope you enjoy reading and seeing my love of the world through pictures.
Still Life With Cat Studio 