Daily Archives: July 13, 2011

Down to the sea in ships

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There is a constantly changing parade of superyachts mooring off Positano.  Every day some arrive and some leave.  The most we have seen at one time is 11 and on average there would be 5 or 6 in each day.

Thanks to a long camera lense we can usually name them.  The shots below are of the Christina O – the private yacht built by Aristotle Onassis and a group of 4 superyachts which includes Arctic P, a research vessel that was converted into a luxury cruiser by Kerry Packer and is now owned by his son James Packer.

Spare time

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Ok, so I’ve got the luxury of time on my hands.  And what better way to spend it than brushing up my PhotoShop skills and then boring everyone with the results.

In particular a process called “tilt shift” photography which makes a photo appear to be “model-like”.  The purist approach to this involves special camera lenses and vast amounts of setup time.  But good old PhotoShop can emulate the look with quite impressive results.

I’ve taken a shot of the local beach and had a wee play.

Il dolce far niente

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We have been in Positano for a week or so and life has settled into a comfortable, simple  routine.

Our days start late at the villa and after a leisurely walk to the hotel we spend the hottest part of the day around the hotel pool.

Late evening in Positano

In the cool of the evening we either return to Villa Greta and enjoy a drink on the terrace or we walk down into the village for shopping, eating or just wandering and exploring.

We’ve been to dinner at Chez Black on the beach and had dinner on the Eden Roc terrace overlooking the bay.  All in all I think we’ve perfected ‘il dolce far niente” as the Italians call it – the sweet art of doing nothing.

Answers to questions

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Never let it be said that Toscanakiwi doesn’t respond to it’s readers comments.  The recent post about our day at the beach raised a number of questions.

Here, we answer them.

That Ferrari

I didn’t have a photograph of the Ferrari yesterday but “Tina of Texas” wanted to see the car.  Today I wandered up the road to take a shot and, being Italy, the car was still there.  In fact it hadn’t moved an inch.

What you can’t see from the photo is the steepness of the drive the car is parked on.  Clearly the car’s owner doesn’t trust the handbrake and has used what I assume is a Ferrari aftermarket accessory to ensure the car stays put.

Obviously it must be a Ferrari branded brick although I couldn’t get close enough to confirm this.

The turntable

The turntable is covered in a very stylish faux grass finish.  Not really sure the logic of this but I guess it’s an Italian thing.

The beach

Geoffman asked about the makeup of the beach.  Asienzo beach is mostly a pebble beach.  There is a small area of sand but from where we were it was a stony walk to the water.

Also the stones were incredibly hot so part of the entertainment was watching people do a funny little dance when a stone or two worked it’s way into their shoes or sandals.  From experience I can say  – ouch.