Postcard from Rome–The Vatican at Night

I took a late afternoon flight from London to Rome. By the time I landed and took a shuttle bus from the airport to my downtown hotel, it was getting towards sunset. Here I was in the Eternal City for my first visit, and I wanted to do something besides find a local ristorante and sit in my room.

At the front desk, I saw a brochure for a night tour of Rome. The hotel called for me and there was room on tour bus…and best of all, the pickup for the tour was only a couple of blocks away. So my evening was set. I should explain that often when I visit a city for the first time, I take a tour bus to get my bearings and learn my way around town. It works!

So I set off on the tour. It was very nice and exciting. I saw the Roman Coliseum lit up at night…an incredible site. Our first stop was the Trevi Fountain. That was amazing. I later saw it in daylight hours…and trust me, it is better at night. Wow!

After that the bus took us all over Rome, and I enjoyed the sites. Sadly, after Trevi, the bus made only one other stop where I could get out…the Vatican. Now, realize I did not own a digital camera at this time, and of course, the old film cameras did not have anti-shake mechanisms. So I did the best I could to brace myself and take this photo and a few others. I half expected that none would come out…so I was a bit shocked to see that this photo actually came out. Hooray for me!

Still, after converting the original slide to a digital image, the processing power of the earlier versions of Photoshop and add-on software was not enough to get this image where I wanted it to be. But in the last few months, a new version of Photoshop and some new plug-ins have allowed me to create the image you see here. And even with the new tools, it took a couple of hours to get it right. There was a ton of digital noise that had to be dealt with, not to mention dust spots that always accumulates on negatives and slides. But, I think I finally got the image I wanted. It is what I saw with my eyes on that very special night.

By the way, did you know that the Vatican is a sovereign nation? When you cross over the border you are technically no longer in Italy. I believe it is the smallest nation in the world. Of course it is surround by Italy, but there are no border guards or passport checks. You just walk in and out with no hassles. Don’t you wish all the world was like that?

PS…if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook (and now Google+) the photograph of me on those sites was taken the same day, just after I landed in Rome. Lots of good memories of Rome, for sure.