Via Conciliazione and St. Peter's

This is one of my favorite shots from my Italy trip, taken on my last night in Rome, when I walked from Santa Maria in Trastevere in the southwest side of the city all the way across the city back to our hotel on the northeast corner. A rainy night, the lights reflected in the cobblestones of the Via Conciliazione leading to St. Peter's square, and the cupola of Michelangelo's dome of St. Peter's reflected in a puddle. You can see that some of those brake lights came a little too close to my tripod for comfort.

This wide boulevard is not original to ancient Rome, but was built in the 1930s by Benito Mussolini. Previously, the view to the dome of St. Peter's was blocked by buildings until you got right up to the square, at which point the facade is so enormous it blocks the view of the dome. Opening the street made the dome visible all the way from the Castel Sant' Angelo.

LENS: 28-70 at ~45mm | FILM: Fuji Velvia | EXPOSURE: f/22 at 5 minutes | DATE: 10/03

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