Back from Italy
Well, I’m back.
Italy is really nice. Really nice.
The pizzas are, too. Heh.
What it was like
We were in Caorle which is a beautiful town on the Adriatic in north-east Italy. Marvellous place. We’re going back next year, I think.
Everyone thought we were German, mainly because the vast majority of their tourism seems to emanate from Germany, but that’s OK because my German is better than my Italian :)
I am also now the l33t Italian speaker, as long as (a) no-one takes my phrasebook away, and (b) you want to say “can I smoke here?“, “can I have the bill, please?“, “a bottle of still mineral water, please“, or “how many stamps do I need on a postcard to England?“. One nice thing about the Italian people, or at least that subset of them which works in restaurants, is that they will applaud your stumbling attempts to speak their lovely language. I lost count of the number of times that I got a “bravissima!” when I hummed and hahed my way through the Italian for “could I have another medium beer, please” or “the risotto was delicious, thankyou“. That doesn’t happen in a lot of places—while I don’t wish to cast aspersions (too much), some people will look down their nose at you and pretend not to understand when you have a crack at it. French waiters, I’m looking at you here. This contributes to the stereotypical English tourist who merely speaks loudly and slowly in English as if the other party is brain-damaged. The Germans who we overheard were rather guilty of this, which surprised me slightly but does at least explain why most of the waiters and waitresses could speak some German; they are obliged to be able to do so.
Photos, or, the lack thereof
I would have lots of photos if my digital camera wasn’t knackered. However, it is; it eats batteries. So, I’m in the market for a new one. Here’s my list of requirements: I’m looking for suggestions as to what I should buy. I’m quite happy to go second-hand on eBay or similar, so the price can be for a second-hand one.
- Small
- Lightweight
- Easy to use (point it, press the button)
- A flash
- Good quality pictures (i.e., can be printed out (by proper photo people, not by me) and not look like a digital photo)
- Saves onto some form of card (not frigging Sony Memory Sticks)
- Doesn’t eat batteries (this is important!)
- I’m not sure whether it should take batteries or just plug in to recharge the internal battery a la a mobile phone—give reasons for your preference
- £150 or less
Venice
Venice is really massively overrated. Don’t bother with it. The Doge’s palace is OK, but when you’ve seen one dark room with a dozen oil paintings in you’ve seen them all, really. The Bridge of Sighs is not at all what we were expecting, and neither was Venice, to be honest. Those of you who have been there or have read something about it may feel smug about your knowledge at this point, but for everyone else: what do you think the Bridge of Sighs would be? Big lovely pretty bridge over a glittering canal, right? Nope, it’s a thin enclosed stone bridge that looks grim, and it’s called the Bridge of Sighs because it leads to the prisons. Similarly, I was under the impression that basically all transport in Venice was on the canals; if you wanted to go from any point to any other point you had to do it by boat. Not at all; there are paths and bridges everywhere. You could live your whole life in Venice and never go on a boat. And the canals are grim and smell rather bad. Massive letdown the whole place was.
So, all in all, it was a lovely week, and I’m glad to be back. Not glad that I have to go back to my job the day after tomorrow, though. Bah. It’s taken me nearly the whole day to catch up on mail and feeds and forums and whatnot, too :-)
You sound like you had a good time.
I’m off now for a few days in Germany (work). I wonder if they’ll think I’m Italian.
My German language knowledge consists of “Actung Baby“, “Ya voll“, “Schadenfreude” and “SCHLECHTER WOLF“.
20 hours later
Oh, and my wife likes her Nixon Coolpix 2200 which doesn’t use the batteries up too much (I use the reusable batteries too). No reason for the preference for this – I think it is just a cheaper camera. I prefer a rechargable camera battery, but they are more expensive (the battery dies eventually and you have to buy a new one; my camera’s battery was at least 20 quid).
Takes an SD card and you can take that into a shop and order photos from it using one of those machines where there is usually a granny staring at it wondering what on earth to do. Photos were good enough when printed out.
The model is probably out of date now, but I expect there is a newer version.
20 hours later
I use a Canon Powershot A75 and its brilliant Take a look
You could pick them up for about 140 not so long ago.
All the images in my gallery are taken with it
Welcome back BTW
20 hours later
Sad you didn’t like Venice – we spent a week there a couple of years ago and loved it, although it’s a lot smaller than I imagined. I found all the little pathways and bridges quite captivating….
Good to have you back, though ;)
27 hours later
In respect of a decent, low budget camera, I am using the Casio Exilim EX-S20. I think that model is probably discontinued now, though you could possibly pick it up on eBay for a bargain bucket price! The latest version of said camera is possibly this one. I love my little Exilim! It fits neatly in your pocket and the only possible problem you might have with it, is that you may forget you are even carrying it! By the way Aq, nice to read you had a good break.
47 hours later
Heh – we had a similar experience in Venice last year. There seem to be signs in two opposite directions to any destination. We picked the “wrong” one to get from the bus station to San Marco and went the long way round through all the tourist trap shops and market stalls. Ended up tired, cynical and rained on. We didn’t want to leave it like that so we went back in the next day and did the less tacky bits.
Venice is grubby though ;)
47 hours later
I can recommend the Canon Powershot A95 (or the cheaper A85, but the A95 is better) http://www.canon.com.au/products/cameras/digital_compact_cameras/powershot_a95.html
Fabulous photos, really easy to use- even my mother says so- and it has heaps of options (even full manual) you can play with if you want to get into creative photography. Uses a CF card- a 1gb card will hold about 300 photos on best resolution. Oh, and the flash is intelligent, which means it will only use enough power to illuminate the subject of the photo- the sort of flash all the good SLRs use. Excellent camera, if I could afford one I’d get one.
2 days later
For a small camera I can’t recommend the Canon IXUS highly enough.
I’ve got an IXUS V but they’ve come in various models over the past four of five years and you should be able to find one to match your budget. The latest greatest models are the IXUS 30 and the IXUS 40.
Bear in mind when making your decision that megapixels aren’t everything. To print a normal 4×6 print from Jessops you only need about 0.7 mega pixels, any more are wasted. What makes a difference are the quality of the lenses, but you are into a whole new world of geekdom there.
If you want to blow your photos up bigger than standard prints you’ll benefit from more pixels, but my 6.3 mega pixel camera is only really necessary for A4 style prints.
For a nice comparison of everyone’s recommendations go to DP Review and peruse their extensive reviews on every digital camera ever produced.
2 days later
you are a twat
15 weeks later