Vatican City Looking down the Via Concilizione from Castel Sant'Angelo to St. Peter's Basilica. This wide avenue was built in the 1930s by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Its creation gave people their first street-level view of Michelangelo's Dome, which had been hidden for centures by the giant Baroque facade.
On the left and right of the dome are two minor cupolas designed by Vignola. Dead center is the obelisk marking the center of St. Peter's Square. The obelisk is about 90 feet high and made of solid granite. Note for photo geeks: Our eyes and brain adjust easily to the color temperature of artificial light, making the light appear white when it is actually some other color. It is only on daylight-balanced film that we usually see the differences in light sources. The mixed lighting of this shot looks particularly colorful on Velvia. Tungsten lighting is yellow-orange, fluorescent light is pale green, halogen is blue-white, sodium or mercury vapor lamps are greenish. Here, you can see that the street lamp nearest to the camera on the right has a different bulb than the others, probably fluorescent while the others are tungsten.
Another interesting note for photographers: The sinuous red lines are obviously tail lights from cars during the long exposure. But what are the yellow dashed lights and the blue dotted light mixed in with them? LENS: 100-400 at ~250mm | FILM: Fuji Velvia | EXPOSURE: f/22 at 5 minutes | DATE: 10/03 |