Italian holiday

This year we had an interesting time in Umbria and Tuscany. I didn't take many pictures because I have a new phone - a Huwai Honor and it is all very well, except for the camera. The camera makes everything dull and grey. I have to edit every pic to turn up the brightness and the colour, and even then the pics are not nearly as good as they used to be on the Samsung. Now I find that I could have used the Samsung as just a camera but I can't find it so I must have taken it to the recycling centre. I can't believe I did that.

Anyway, here are some pics showing metalwork in some of the towns we went to - like Cortana. I let the others take pics of the views and so forth because their cameras are better.

Caged windows

I think this might be Perugia

This is definitely Siena

Siena - a hook in the form of a sheep

You can see that the Italians have a fine tradition of metalwork being decorative as well as functional and they still have that. Nearly every apartment we stayed in had something interesting in its fittings that you wouldn't have found in the UK.

These are things that I valued about Italy:

1. No Starbucks or Kentucky Fried chicken or any other familiar tackiness. I think they have McDonald's but not in the historical towns we visited.
2. The other side of the coin - the cafe/bars we visited were individual businesses.
3. Plenty of parking on the edge of towns or under the cities - some with escalators into town.
4. Pedestrianised town centres - these places were built long before the car and it is a good idea to keep cars out - with the exception of Florence. We caught buses into Florence. 
5. Recycling receptacles everywhere.
6. Valiant bicycling in the face of many dangers.
7. No Brexit.
8. Good quality buildings in the traditional designs with good materials, warm colours - ochre, terracotta, sienna!
9. Ironwork - doorcovers very elaborate
10. Artisans making goods in their workshops. We saw a man making a mosaic picture from polished stone - which turned out to be way above our price range. Lovely, though.