In the early 20th century, this type of taxi call box system might be considered the world's first Uber. And yes... it's a Fiat.

The word taxi can find its roots in the Medieval Latin word taxa, which means a tax or charge for a service.

In the 16th century, Philip of Burgundy tasked postmasters Franz von Taxis and Johann Baptiste von Taxis with instituting a fast and reliable postal service to move letters (but not people) throughout the countries of Europe. It's amazing to think that the word taxi is understood by most of the world's population--regardless of the language spoken--to mean a method of moving people from one place to another by car, motorcycle, rickshaw, bicycle or boat.

--GVI

In the ancient world, the palm frond was a symbol of victory, triumph, peace, and eternal life originating, especially in the Near East and around the Mediterranean. The use of palms on Palm Sunday (La Domenica delle Palme in Italy), commemorates Jesus Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, as foretold by the prophet Zechariah. People cut branches from palm trees, laid them across Jesus' path and waved them in the air as he entered Jerusalem the week before his crucifixion and death.

They greeted Jesus not as the spiritual Messiah who would take away the sins of the world, but as a potential political leader who would overthrow the Romans. They shouted "Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!"

Every Palm Sunday when I was a child, my sisters and I would come home after mass with palm fronds and while my mother made the Sunday Sugo, we would turn them into crosses, hearts or other shapes. The best would be hung on the top of the door to our apartment or in between the two kitchen windows. My Mother would also place one next to her statue of the Madonna in her bedroom. Our creations were never as good or elaborate as some of the examples here.

Happy Palm Sunday, tutti. Stay safe. Have faith.

--Jerry Finzi, GVI

Many of us who love Italy have probably seen this photo many times... "The American Girl in Italy" by Ruth Orkin. Taken in 1951, it appears to be a candid shot of a pretty girl being taunted with catcalls as she walks down a street in Florence, perpetuating the stereotype of the Italian sexist male wolf and the female as an object. Still others today (including the object of the photo, American art student and model, Jinkx Allen) claim it illustrates female empowerment. Most think of it as a shot in the style of Cartier-Bresson or Brassai or even André Kertész.

Being a professional photographer my entire life, I feel obliged to give my strong opinions on this image...

The young woman in the photo is 23 year old Jinx Allen (aka Ninalee Craig in her later life). Allen had done the unthinkable in the early 1950s--quitting her job and boarding a ship to Europe with her third class ticket, and traveling to France, Spain and Italy unaccompanied. During her travels she met 29 year old photographer, Ruth Orkin.

Orkin was born the daughter of Hollywood silent film star and led a fairly privileged life early on.  She had dreams of becoming a cinematographer, which never panned out. In 1943 she attempted to start a career in New York as a photojournalist, but instead became a nightclub photographer, shooting pics of luminaries out on the town. Because of her growing portfolio of celebrities, she started doing assignments for Ladies Home Journal, Look and the New York Times. Most of her work was following celebrities around with a camera and the occasional portrait.

While in Italy, she met Craig and began taking shots of her in various, planned scenarios on the streets of Florence. The working concept for Orkin's shoot was "Don't Be Afraid to Travel Alone", a visual story of a woman traveling alone in Italy. She went into the shoot planning the shots along the way.

Although Craig claimed that this was not a staged photo, in a 2011 interview with TODAY she also admits they were just "horsing around" (honest photojournalists of the day didn't horse around to get shots). She also said that "...Ruth Orkin was wise enough to ask me to turn around and go back and repeat the walk", adding that there were only two shots taken of the famous scene.

Think about this a second... Orkin's model was told to walk through the men hanging out on the corner--a six foot tall, beautiful American girl dressed stylishly struts through the scene. After her first shot, Orkin told Craig to do it again. Now, these guys would really get into the scene, checking out and making comments (more than likely, in the poetic style of the Italian male --"Che bellissima!" as she sashayed, runway style, flaunting herself a second time.

This is not photojournalism, where a photographer blends into the scene, often with small 35mm camera held discretely, waiting for the reality of the street to form into the perfect moment. That moment is not planned.

The Nikon Coolpix B700 and Coolpix P900
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Our P600 had a 60x zoom while the P530 had 42x range with both capturing 16 megapixel images. The newer Coolpix B700 ($447 on Amazon) also has a 60x zoom range, but bumps up the capture size to a whopping 20 megapixels with an added bonuses: it captures in RAW file format (this is the ultimate digital "negative" to capture) and 4K video. It offers a great combination for this price range.  

Consider the Coolpix P900 ($559 on Amazon) as the B700's much larger cousin. Although it has only a 16 megapixel file size, it offers an amazing 83x zoom range (24-2000 mm equivalent)! With B700, you trade-off a higher zoom range for a larger file size (a great thing when zooming), and although the P900 has a lower  file size, it affords a larger zoom capability. Just look at the what the P900 can do... ​

​Now think of what that means. You can be sipping wine on the patio of a hilltop Tuscan town and take a photo of your wife, then a close-up of your dinner, turn to shoot the setting sun and then zoom in on that classic Fiat 500 you spied zig-zagging 3 miles down that twisty road in the valley below--all without having to change lenses. Great stuff, these "Super Zooms". 

Personally speaking though, I'd go for more compact B700 with the larger file size. The 60x range of my P600 or with the B700 is plenty (35mm equivalent range of 24 – 1440mm) for most people, and for quality photos it's always better to have a larger file size.  Keep in mind that if you do want to use the extreme end of these "Super Zoom" cameras to capture the highest, sharpest image possible, set the camera's ISO rating down low (under 200 for normal outdoor lighting) and use a tripod.

The latest Finepix super-zoom is the P1000, which offers an astonishing range of 24 - 3000mm (that's optical zoom... a digital mode called Dynamic Fine Zoom bumps it up to 6000 equivalent!) It also has features like 4K Ultra HD video. RAW (NRW), macro, time-lapse and true stereo sound--a perfect choice for vloggers who want to get really serious about their video productions. Think about this fact, if you were a pro photographer, the Nikkor 1200-1700mm lens would run you about $60,000. Yes, putting one of these super-zoom cameras from Nikon in your bag is a great idea indeed.

Here's an incredibly compact, sturdy, small-packing tripod that I highly recommend if you trying to save on space... the compact, folding Cullman Magnesit Copter (Click the Photo to see it on Amazon). It's great for propping up on stone walls, tables or vehicles for a steady platform.  I upgraded the head on mine to a Giottos Mini-Ball Head.

What I really love about these Coolpix cameras is that they all have both an eye-level finder (digital) and a vari-angle, articulated viewfinder. The eye-level is useful for shooting "old school", with your nose and eye up to the back of the camera--immersing you into your framing. The swiveling display makes it very easy to shoot overhead (for a short guy like me, this is really appreciated) or for taking shots from very low or awkward angles (taking a shot from a medieval tower holding the camera at arm's length while looking down gives a real sense of height). Great for candid street shots, too, holding the camera down at your side with the display angled up toward you. Done right, people have no idea that you're even taking a picture.     

I won't get into all the features here, but rest assured, depending on the model, they have a wealth of high-tech tools: GPS and POI (Points of Interest) to help create Google pin maps of where your photos were taken, or even to list Points of Interest nearby your current location; built-in Wi-Fi or Bluetooth; "Near Field Communication" compatibility (NFC);  Full HD or 4K video; and ISO ranges of 100-12,800 (P900) and 3200 (B700).
 
You can also connect to compatible smart phones and tablets with Nikon's Snapbridge, sharing and editing photos or even controlling the camera with your device. And thankfully, these "Super Zooms" come with a vibration reduction feature to lessen motion blur when you're zoomed in (shut this feature off to prevent unnecessary battery drain when not needed.)  

 With one charged battery, any of these cameras can take hundreds of pictures, but I really recommend buying a few extra batteries.  Video and flash both eat batteries fast on these digital cameras. I brought 3 batteries for each camera and could have used an extra one or two each, so I suggest traveling with an even half dozen for each camera you take. And don't forget to buy one or two battery chargers for your camera's battery model. Even three would be better--you will more than likely run out of battery power long before you'll fill up a large capacity SD card. It's best to carry fully charged batteries with you at all times.

Here's a dual bay model that would work well... ​​the BM USB charger with 2 Pack of EN-EL23 Batteries ($28 on Amazon).  And the perfect companion to this would be a rapid start, "Smart" USB charger for all your devices (battery charger, phones, tablets, etc.) like the Sabrent Quick Charge 3.0 [UL Certified] 54W 5-Port Family-Sized Desktop USB Rapid Charger ($25 on Amazon). ​We had a charger like this. This type senses that amount of power each specific device requires and can charge 5 devices at once, with one of its ports being a fast charger (how's 20 minutes sound?)

That's about it... all you need to take fantastic photos and travel with with a new "Super Zoom" camera. Here's a tip though: If you are planning a trip in the near future and want to buy a new camera, make your purchase well in advance your Voyage--perhaps 2-3 months prior to departing. This will give you enough time to become fluent with all the features and settings of the camera. These cameras are very powerful tools and can capture amazing images, if you just take the time to learn all of their functions. 

I hope this helps you decide whether a "Super Zoom" might be best for your own Voyage to Italy. If you have any questions, be sure to ask... 

Happy shooting!
​
--Jerry Finzi

I'd like to think that my wife is luckier than most. I don't go to the local drug store to buy Valentine cards for her. I've been making my own designs for her throughout our life together. (Truth be told however, I know for certain that I'm the lucky one).

I usually make dinner for her at home on Valentine's Day. Not that I'm cheap, mind you. It's just that Lisa thinks I can cook a lot better than most local restaurant chefs.

While modern cards might use cliche phrases or puns or jokes as a message to a loved one, these vintage Italian Valentines will remind us that Italians have always been a passionate bunch...

Enjoy

--Jerry Finzi

Walking down the streets of any big city in the world, you'll more than likely come across functional, but elaborately designed manhole covers. But in Italy, such beautiful practicality has been going on for a very lone time... even back to the time of ancient Rome. In fact, many claim that our GVI mascot, La Bocca della Verita was once a large manhole cover.

Enjoy the variety in this collection, and don't forget to look down once in a while while walking through Italian cities.
--Jerry Finzi

Since ancient times, there have been shrines of the Gods, watching over Romans in their day to day life--and they are still there, but since Christian times, in the form of Madonnelle, shrines to the Holy Mother Mary on the facades of Roman buildings all over the ancient city. Some are painted, some sculpted, while others are mosaics or behind glass. And while others are at eye level to pedestrians passing by, most seem to be perched up high, usually on the second floor overlooking the street below.

They are all well maintained and beloved, with many displaying fresh flowers and illuminated at night with their own personal street lamp. Others even have ornate but functional canopies to protect from inclement weather. Still others have ornate frames, themselves works of art. Stone angels often are often surrounding the Madonna and intricate ironwork is often used to support the shrines.

This children's story warns against evil and reminds us of the Margolfa, a "mummy" carved into stone and used to ward off evil and the malocchio in the region surrounding Fiumalbo in the mountains of Emilia-Romagna. These stone heads are placed on walls and homes to scare away the evil that came from the deep, dark forests in medieval days.

Perhaps this superstitious tradition was begun by the ancestors of modern day Fiumalbini, who in times past actually hung the severed heads on doors and walls as a warning to their real world threats--invaders--to stay away.

While some margolfa are ancient, there are local artists still carving new ones today... and people still guard their homes from the malocchio with them.

--Jerry Finzi

You might also be interested in...

Small Towns of Italy - Fiumalbo in Emilia-Romagna
Monsters of Italy: Sardinian Mamuthones, the Stuff of Nightmares
Garden of Bomarzo - Lions, Monsters and Bears, Oh My!
Villa Palagonia, the Sicilian Villa of Monsters
Castello Incantato - the Enchanted Castle and Stone Heads of a Madman

To me, the old, weathered doors in Italy are a work of art in and of themselves. Their textures of aged wood, peeling paint and ancient, blacksmith forged hardware are wonderful subjects for my own photography.

But in the small mountainside village of Staiti in the Aspromonte National Park in Calabria there are doors that boast both colors and colorful words. They were painted by a Staitese artist, Teresa Gandini, with the help of local boys. Gandini is a well known artist in the area who usually paints local scenes of rustic architecture, gardens and floral settings. But in this case, not only her images, but also the words she paints on the doors are what transforms them doors into sheer architectural poetry.

They could very well be the doors to visitors' souls...

--Jerry Finzi