Melody of Colour

I’m on the train from Rome up to Northern Italy. It’s a 5 ¼ hour trip. And we’re just chilling out chatting, snoozing and enjoying not having to walk anywhere.

I’m loving the Italian scenery… it is changing quite a lot as we go along, from large ploughed fields, to rolling grassland, vineyards and bush coloured hills and mountains. We’re spending more and more time in tunnels which is means it is getting more mountainous as we get further North I guess.

It’s mid-October and many trees are starting to turn yellow. There’s not a cloud in the sky yet the light is soft and hazy… it is very different to the light that I’m used to. Subtle, soft and oozing out the colours of the landscape. It sounds like a cliché but the light is beautiful. I can’t do it justice with the odd photos I’ve been taking from the train window. I think that the light that we’re used to in New Zealand is much harsher and colder. Maybe it is something to do with the differences in UV. I mean over here we’ve been out in the sun for two days in a row without any sunscreen and we’re fine. We’d be fried after just one day in NZ like this.

The streets of Rome were a huge contrast from London. The architecture in both places is grand, old and much more attractive than most modern architecture in my opinion. London was precise, grey natural sand stone or granite with some buildings painted crème or light yellow. It felt clean, tidy, organised and monochromatic. Grey everywhere. The sky was grey, the buildings were mostly grey, and there was little colour.

Rome has been a big contrast. Older, rougher, much more worn, and colourful. Worn cobblestone roads, worn large buildings with huge wooden doors – mostly 4” thick – pastel coloured walls with timber shutters are typical of the central city areas.

The Colour of London...


The colour of Rome...


Cheers for now
Doug