Chris and I love to hang out in Piazza Bra in Verona, sitting on a bench, and gazing at L’Arena, the nearly 2000-year-old Roman amphitheatre that is still in use today.

While it’s most noted for being the venue for opera performances  in the summer months, L’Arena is also used for a variety of other events. Case in point: the day we arrived there was a huge crane set up with a video camera on top, ready to film (and broadcast?) a big rock music awards concert the night we arrived in Verona. It made for a couple of interesting photos.

The crane did, that is, not the awards show itself, which we didn’t see.

Every night when we’d walk around in Verona, we saw the crescent moon visible in the sky. Chris kept pointing it out to me, so I finally broke down and took a photo of it when it was over some trees in the park in Piazza Bra, across from L’Arena.  I like to take photos of the moon, but ever since I figured out the trick for how to get a photo of the moon to look like a moon — and not just a blob of light — I have tried to resist taking too many photos of the moon. I’m now trying to get other things in the photo with the moon- I haven’t quite mastered that trick yet. Which is why I need to keep trying, eh?

So, those are two subjects your average tourist probably doesn’t photograph in Verona. Now, most tourists will of course take a photo of L’Arena itself. But, each time we go I try to find something a little new. This trip’s experiment is below – while Chris patiently waited on a bench, I fussed with the camera settings and used the end of the bench as an impromptu tripod to get an “evening feel” for the scene on Piazza Bra.

BTW, while it is true that I experimented just a little with some tweaks on the computer for a couple of the “nighttime” shots, in order to darken the skies more to my liking, I did not arrange for the two birds to wander into the frame at exactly the right moment on successive days. I guess the birds in Verona just like having their photos taken.

Anyway, below are some of the photos I took this year on my birthday weekend in Verona. You can compare them to the “nonpostcard” shots I took last year on my birthday in Verona; as  you’ll see, this last trip was not the first time I haven’t taken the usual tourist photos in Verona. Interestingly, my one “postcard shot” last year was a daytime view along the Adige River; arguably, that scene I posted the other day from this trip, which was also taken along the Adige, it probably was my most “postcard” like scene this year, too.

Same town, always something different to try photographically. One of the many reasons that Verona continues to be one of our favorite towns. 🙂