The first place I picked is a very special place for me not too far away from where my parents live in the north of Italy. The place is called Aquileia. In case you are not familiar with it, Aquileia was one of the most important fluvial ports during the Roman times. What is now a very small creek which you will see in one of the pictures below, was an incredible large river that was taking large trading vessels up and down to the ocean. Today just Roman ruins stand in place of one of the most magnificent places I’ve had the opportunity to visit along with an ancient cathedral pre Roman times which floors are covered with the most spectacular mosaics you have ever seen.

Some of the images are edited while a couple are not, not even retouched, they came out like that and I wanted to leave them like that.

These and many other images will be available soon for purchase as limited editions on my art website http://www.manuelavalenti.com/store

If I would have to get married again, I would pick this place above any other.

Enjoy the pictures

It is hard though to find nice bright winter days, so whenever one pops out of the huge amount of clouds and gray skies we get I just can’t resist, and if in the mixture we add icicles then I’m all for it! I love the ice formations, I think is one of the most wonderful things to watch and I had the opportunity to see the icicles form around the border of the roof of my home.

We had a couple of days of just intense blue skies, bright perfect light and well too cold for me to go out so all the pictures you see below were taken from inside my house. Sorry love the winter but just can’t tolerate that much cold!!

The light reflecting from the icicles is just so beautiful! the pictures were barely retouched, the majority came out of the camera as you see them. I’ve used my everyday camera, Canon Rebel XTI, Canon Zoom lens EFS 17-85mm and a circular polarizer.

Hope you like the pictures!