Italy from the Inside

Enjoy 300+ photos of Trieste (copyright free)


Several years ago, my wife and I decided to produce a photo CD of our home town Trieste, a beautiful city and port in northeastern Italy near the Slovenian border. We collected numerous pictures and selected the best 300 for the CD, including landscapes, food and panoramas.

With mixed feelings, we decided it was time to discontinue the CD (old digital world), but we are happy to share these images with all of you under the copyright free license called Creative Commons (a small contribution to the social media travel community).

Next time you’re visiting Venice, if you want a nice day trip off-the-beaten path, jump on a train for a couple of hours and visit Trieste. We hope these pictures will entice you to do so.

– View Trieste CD photos as a slideshow
– Download Trieste CD photos from Flickr.com

Earthquake in Italy: How to find up-to-date information


A powerful 6.3-magnitude earthquake shook central Italy (Abruzzo region) early Monday, April 6th. As of today, officials said that as many as 179 people had been killed, at least 1,500 injured and tens of thousands left homeless.
For the latest updates:

Online newspapers (in Italian):
– Repubblica
– Corriere della Sera (article in English)

Images
– Aerial pictures of the affected area (by Repubblica)
– Gallery 1 and Gallery 2 (by AGI)

Video
– Quake’s aftermath in Onna village (by BBC)
– Aerial footage of quake aftermath (by BBC)

Live conversations
– Twitter (use hashtags #terremoto #earthquake #italy)

Google provides street views of Italian cities (on the iPhone, too)


I’m constantly impressed by the fast pace at which Microsoft and Google are innovating in the mapping technology space.
Some time ago I created a short video tutorial describing the two online services, then I blogged about how Google allows users to customize their maps and how Microsoft introduced bird’s eye views of several cities in Italy.

This time I’ll talk about Google’s street views. Imagine a car with a panoramic camera on its roof to capture thousands of pictures while it’s circulating around a city. Now, link those images to Google maps and you can experience on your computer what a busy Italian street looks like in the reality.

Google for now provides coverage only for Milan, Rome, Florence and the Lake Como area. Check some of these links, drag your pointer around to discover the surroundings and follow the arrows to move along the streets:
– Piazza di Santa Croce in Florence
– Piazza del Popolo in Rome
– Piazza Castello in Milan
– Piazza Roma in Arzegno (on Lake Como)

If you own an iPhone, you’ll be happy to know that Google street views are available for your mobile device too.
For example, search for ‘Rome’ in the Google Maps iPhone application and click on the orange little man on the label:

and you’ll magically experience what’s like driving in Italy without time constrains.

Now that you are “virtually ready” for Italy, consider the next steps to get “totally ready” for Italy.
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