#Podere Belvedere

[dopescissorscashwagon]

Tuscany is AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL! I love this region of Italy! The first of two weeks has come and gone and we got some incredible conditions! Here's a photo from an atmospheric morning at the famous Podere Belvedere, this year with poppies 📸😉🤌

📸 by Mads Peter Iversen Photography

[castellsipalaus]

Palais Schwarzenberg

L’any 1697, el mariscal Heinrich Franz von Mansfeld, comte de Mansfeld i príncep de Fondi, a més a més de president del Consell de Guerra Imperial sota el regnat de Leopold I, emperador del Sacre Imperi Romano-Germànic, va encarregar un palau a Viena a un dels arquitectes més renombrats de la Cort austriaca, Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt.

El mariscal, procedent d’una família de Saxònia, i amb un feu principesc al Lazio italià desprès de servir la Cort espanyola, volia una residència d’estiu amb un ampli jardí. Però el que de veritat volia era rivalitzar amb un altre gran estadista de la Cort de Viena, el príncep Eugeni de Savoia, noble d’origen francès al servei dels exèrcits austriacs, que va lluitar a la Guerra de Successió espanyola i en diverses campanyes contra els turcs.

La voluntat de Von Mansfeld de no quedar per sota del príncep de Savoia va quedar reflectit a l'elecció de l'emplaçament al costat dels terrenys del Belvedere i a l'elecció del mateix arquitecte, que s’havia format sota la tutela del seu rival i també va haver de rivalitzar amb dos dels altres gran arquitectes del Barroc austriac, Johann Bernard Fischer von Erlach i el seu fill Joseph Emanuel.

No obstant, uns anys més tard, el comte Von Mansfeld va morir i la finca, encara en construcció, va ser adquirida el 1715 pel príncep Adam Franz Karl von Schwarzenberg, qui va encarregar la terminació de l'edifici a Fischer von Erlach pare, que va fer instal·lar les primeres màquines de vapor d’Àustria per garantir el bon funcionament del sistema d’aigua del jardí. Una placa commemorativa a l'ala lateral que dóna a la Prinz Eugen Straße ho testifica avui dia.

La intervenció dels arquitectes més representatius de l’època deixa clara la importància de l’edifici. Von Hildebrandt va participar amb d’altres arquitectes als projectes de l’Abadia de Göttweig i el Palau Weissenstein i obra seva va ser el complex integrat per l’Oberes Belvedere i l’Unteres Belvedere, dos palaus rodejats de grans jardins, encarregat pel rival de Von Mansfeld quan aquest ja havia mort.

Fischer von Erlach pare, per la seva part, té com a principal obra l’església de San Carles Borromeu (Karlskirche, en alemany), projecte iniciat el 1715 que va finalitzar el seu fill. La seva monumentalitat es va inspirar en els temples més importants de la història de l’arquitectura, alguns dels quals va poder conèixer gràcies als seus viatges per Europa.

Una vegada finalitzat, el palau va romandre en mans dels Schwarzenberg (Švarcenberk, en txec), una família que tenia les seves arrels a Bohèmia i Francònia, una àmplia regió principalment situada al nord de Baviera. L’ascens d’aquesta família aristocràtica es va plasmar en els favors rebuts de la noblesa vienesa durant el segle XVIII. Al segle XIX, l’edifici va ser reformat per deixar espai a nous espais enjardinats.

Durant la Segona Guerra Mundial, el palau va patir greus danya pels bombardejos, però va ser restaurat poc després del final del conflicte i roman en possessió de la mateixa família Schwarzenberg fins a l’actualitat. Una part del palau acull un hotel de luxe i un restaurant.

El Palau Schwarzenberg és un dels palaus barrocs amb jardí més importants de Viena. Els jardins ascendents situats darrere de l'edifici inclouen estàtues de gres de Lorenzo Mattielli, gerros de pedra dissenyats per Fischer von Erlach i cascades projectades per Andrea Steinböckh. L'esplèndid interior del palau s'ha conservat en gran part. L'antic pati d'honor està ara asfaltat i serveix d'aparcament.

[landscape-lunacy]

Podere Belvedere, Italy - by Georg Scharf

[withabackpackandcamera]

October 4th, 2021

Day 3: Through The Golden Rolling Hills of Tuscany We Go!

Today was a very full and exhausting day that, again, started at sunrise. For me, at least. And today was yet another jam-packed day because of yesterday’s scheduling mishap that still weighed on us. 

The whole point of sleeping in San Quirico d’Orcia last night was for this morning’s main task. Specifically, sunrise photography of one of Tuscany’s most picturesque farmhouses: Podere Belvedere. With our B&B located right around the corner from the farmhouse, I woke up before the sun got out of bed and dragged myself over to the viewpoint in the cold morning darkness at around 6:30am or so. Luckily, when I arrived, there were only two other photographers there. As a result, there was a lot of space to move around to find the best spot for photos this morning. Because I hadn’t scoped out the area the night before as I had intended (because we got in so late), I ended up asking one of the photographers about the area, making sure I was in a good-enough spot for the sunrise shots, and he reassured me I was in one of the many right places. 

For around two hours, I stood on the hillside overlooking the valley in which Podere Belvedere was located in the distance, waiting for the sun to rise and hoping for a photogenic scene. With my lack of a super telephoto lens combined with the positioning of disruptive trees near the hill, it was hard to find the perfect spot to capture the shot I wanted. But I eventually settled on a couple of spots and jumped around, snapping away, as the sun started to rise over the beautiful Tuscan valley. The conditions weren’t great nor epic, but they were decent. I was hoping for low lying fog, crazy-colored skies, and epic light streams. However, what I got was a bit less than what I was hoping for. But I think I’ll be able to produce a couple of portfolio-worthy photos from the morning. 

After spending the early morning hours near Podere Belvedere, I made a quick detour to check out the famous Tuscany cypress grove. By the time I approached the grove, the sun was high in the sky and the cypress trees were no longer something worth photographing. So I quickly headed back to Antica Sosta, where Cynthia and a breakfast plate of pancakes and pastries were waiting for me. It’s always nice to load up on a good, free breakfast before a full day’s worth of adventures. 

Once we were checked out of the B&B, we started our whirlwind road trip through Tuscany. We first made two different stops to see the famous Cappella della Madonna di Vitaleta. The first roadside stop was a bit far from the chapel so after a short walk to look around, we jumped back in the car and incidentally found another route to get to the chapel that required less walking. It was nice to see the chapel but definitely not worth the long walk we could have mistakenly taken to get to it. 

Next was Pienza, a very picturesque and pretty Tuscan town with beautiful alleyways and gorgeous windows and doors with flowers all around. After driving around to find a free parking space, we spent time casually strolling through town admiring the unique beauty the town had to offer. What we really noticed was how clean everything appeared and how pretty the buildings and windows were decorated, with fresh, colorful flower accents everywhere. Definitely a hidden gem so far on the trip. 

After visiting Pienza, the original plan was to visit Montepulciano, a town located not too far from Pienza. But because of our time crunch and Cynthia’s desire to see another unique and gorgeous town, we made a last minute adjustment and drove all the way to Pitigliano instead. And it was a long drive through Tuscany’s various landscapes, taking around 1.5 hours to get there. With Cynthia’s excitement for Pitigliano and because it was still early in the afternoon, it made sense for us to try to fit it in, even if we lost out on other towns nearby. But the drive and the hour spent there was worth it! Pitigliano was beautiful yet different from Pienza. It was another medieval-looking town that looked like it was carved right out from the tufa rock on which it sits. Walking through the medieval old town was like walking through centuries of history. We strolled through the empty, quiet streets of Pitigliano for about an hour, admiring the pretty walkways and town streets, before heading back to our car. 

By the time we left Pitigliano, the late afternoon was quickly approaching. We skipped a planned visit to Serrano and instead drove up toward the cypress groves again to take another peek at it before leaving the Tuscan countryside. Along the way, we conveniently drove by Farmhouse Poggio Covili, another picturesque farmhouse I had previously marked on my map of places to see, where we made a brief stop to see it. Then, we made a quick stop at the cypress grove. With afternoon lighting conditions the way they were, it made little sense to stay there too long. So, after some photos, we continued on toward the last Tuscany stop of the day: Podere Boccaleno, another beautiful farmhouse at the end of a windy road lined with cypress trees. It took a few minutes to figure out how to get to the photo spot for the farmhouse but we eventually found a parking spot and the right photo spot to view the sunset scene. We didn’t stick around there for too long since we were short on time and because of the dud of a sunset we witnessed. 

With the night quickly approaching, we had planned one last stop for the evening before making the long drive across the country to Venice, where we were due for the night. San Gimignano. We were actually supposed to visit San Gimignano yesterday but because of time constraints, we skipped it, hoping to visit it today. So we made the long drive up to San Gimignano in the dark and eventually arrived there two hours later. Originally, the plan was to park the car, walk around the old walled medieval town, and grab a quick dinner before heading out for Venice. But by the time we got there, it was so late and so dark that we were quickly regretting even coming up with the idea of rushing a visit through San Gimignano. But because we were there, we tried. And failed. In the dark, we drove around with faulty GPS navigating, trying to find a parking spot so that we could park and get out and walk. But after some missed turns and dead ends, we quickly realized that the GPS had no idea where we were and had no idea how to get us to where we wanted to go. And that we were just driving around in circles. Exhausted, lost, frustrated, hungry, and impatient with the GPS, we gave up on visiting San Gimignano. There was no free parking that was easily found. It was dark. And we still had many hours of driving left to get to Venice. We grumpily left the medieval town without seeing it and regretted both that we had to leave it this way and that we left it as the last town to visit on two very crammed days of road tripping. 

We eventually escaped the car labyrinth that is San Gimignano and started our very long and exhausting 3 hour and 10 minute drive to Mestre, Venice. Because of how tired I was, somewhere along the drive, we made a quick stop and switched drivers twice so that Cynthia could drive a little before I finished up the road trip. But we eventually made it to Mestre in good time, arriving at around 11:15pm. After meeting our host and checking into our AirBnB, we cleaned up and crashed once again, exhausted from the ridiculously packed first three days of the trip. 

On the agenda for tomorrow is Venice. We are definitely going to sleep in and mozzy our way over to Venice at a not-so-early hour. Not only because it’s going to rain early in the morning but also because we just need a break to take care of our bodies. Sleep time. 

5 Things I Learned/Observed Today:

1. There were a lot less photographers photographing Podere Belvedere at sunrise in early October than I had imagined would be there. Maybe it was because they were waiting for even better conditions. Or they were waiting for mid-October when there’d be fall foliage. Or they were in better spots, of which there were likely a few in the area. Either way, the less photographers around, the better! 

2. The rolling hills, the stark contrast of light and dark, the lines of cypress trees, and the beautiful Italian architecture in Tuscany, especially Val d’Orcia, is every landscape photographer’s dream! Here, in the fall, you get the slightly muted colors of orange, green, and yellow that are much more fresh in appearance in the spring, I’m sure. 

3. Old Town Pitigliano was dead. So quiet and so empty. With an eerie feeling that might have been similar to the emptiness during The Plague of the Middle Ages. The empty streets were good for photography but I wonder where everyone went or where everyone else lives? Or what the purpose of the old town is except for tourism? Especially because so many buildings seemed to be on the “for sale” market. Or maybe it was just today that was quiet… 

4. Never try to navigate around San Gimignano in the thick darkness of night at the end of a tiring day. You’ll get lost. And frustrated. And more exhausted. I’m sure San Gimignano is a day trip for many. So set aside time so that you don’t miss it like we did multiple times.

5. When searching for different farmhouses and photo-worthy places to visit in Tuscany and Val d’Orcia, it seemed like a lot of places were misnamed or mixed up for other places. You search for one thing and it leads you to another. Be careful when looking online. And make sure you read some good blogs that clearly spell things out for you.

[makedata]

Sensual shapes by philou3117 // Tuscany is about curves and light, not surprising that this place inspired masters of renaissance. Every bit of this last one outline each hills you see until the horizon in the most peculiar game of light and shadows you could experience. Each morning and evening is a show that you'll never want it to end... Podere belvedere surely is the most iconic picture of Tuscany. It does'nt mean that you should not take one. Getting there early in the morning, sourrounded by silence and waiting for the sun to rise is a powerfull experience. The sky is taking multiple shading of red until the first ray of lights pierce the horizon enlighting top of hills. The mist adds a special atmosphere that make the scene magic. With its help, you can follow the sun rays all along their way until they caress the spines of cypress with their soft and warm light. Just after the sunrise, swallows fligh as a swarm everywhere in the sky. What a beautifull, full of poesy, morning i've spent. It will stay engraved in my heart for a long time.

[thegreato1ne]

New on 500px : Sensual shapes by philou3117 by philou3117

New on 500px : Sensual shapes by philou3117 by philou3117

Tuscany is about curves and light, not surprising that this place inspired masters of renaissance. Every bit of this last one outline each hills you see until the horizon in the most peculiar game of light and shadows you could experience. Each morning and evening is a show that you’ll never want it to end…

Podere belvedere surely is the most iconic picture of Tuscany. It does’nt mean that you…

[connor-burrows]

Sensual shapes by philou3117

[dariomarcollection]

A classic from Tuscany por Fabrizio Lunardi

[thesephotoswillspeaktoyou]

Podere Belvedere, a light soul of Tuscany. by robschueller

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Podere Belvedere in morning light © Jarmila by Jarmila

[travelless]

Podere Belvedere

[whiskeygin23]

Belvedere at sunrise morning by Jarmila

[landscape-lunacy]

Podere Belvedere, Italy - by alessio Toscano

[route-rocks]

Podere Belvedere by caramad

[theframelines]

Val d orcia by AdnanBubalo

[thegreato1ne]

New on 500px : Toskana by info373 by info373 from 500px For download Click Here