This morning the sun refused to rise at dawn and remained stubbornly hidden throughout most of the day. Rain drizzled throughout the morning and poured for half an hour in the afternoon. On my way home from work, water was still dripping from trees and high surfaces, cars splashed each other as they drove over dirty puddles and my windscreen was mucked by skeletal raindrops that had dried up.
The sun did make a late appearance though. It popped its head from underneath the heavy cloud cover and shone on the bastions, six hundred years old. They basked in the sunlight after a full day of grey. A full rainbow emerged and cut the island in half.
Few things take my breath away, but the sky does with all its neat tricks and unexpected explosions of colour and light. It flirts with me; keeps me on edge. It showers me with gold, assaults me with long days of unblemished blue, plays coy with a downcast day and then changes its mind in the evening and rewards me with a sunset like today’s; setting the clouds on fire turning them into burning cinders of blazing red. Alas, I was at work and my camera was at home.
I have managed this photo though, just last Saturday on my way home from the supermarket. I walked out onto the parking lot and was met by this scene. I dropped my recyclable bags, my many, many bags, and nicked my boyfriend’s phone. This shot came to be.
This picture I took in Italy while travelling between Chianti and Pisa while the car sped across the autostrada and my friends slept in the back after a very long day of hiking.
These I took in Venice. Need I say more?
The thing about sunsets I really like, apart from the breath-taking spectacle playing out in the sky, is the way buildings seem to absorb the light and bask in it. The stone turns to glowing amber and a warm feeling inevitably erupts deep within the beholder. This is an example; the Basilica di San Marco winks back at the sun descending on the other side of the watery city.
This post has been inspired by the online adventure travel magazine LetsBeWild.com’s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge. This week’s theme, as you might have guessed, is sunsets. Follow the link to see more incredible shots and join in the challenge:
http://www.letsbewild.com/photo-challenge/wild-weekly-photo-challenge-6-sunsets/
Sandra's scribbles 
I was going through facebook, something I don’t usually do, but to my surprise and great delight I found this picture. It was taken on the same day I posted my thoughts on my blog and it is the same sight that I was so inedequately trying to explain, because there are no words no matter how articulate one tries to be.
This photo is breathtakingly beautiful. And while you admire the skill of the photographer, you cannot help but think that the view he/she was capturing was in fact stunning. Photographers can do wonders. Their skill is an art. But with views like these: the full rainbow, the canopy of clouds that hangs heavily creating such a contrast to the warmth emanating from the glowing ancient buildings below, who can go wrong!
Beautiful Italian sunsets! Hope to see you join in the current challenge for this week too – the theme is Macro Photography! http://www.letsbewild.com/photo-challenge/wild-weekly-photo-challenge-7-macro-photography/
I don’t whether my current skills are up to it but I will certainly try! Thank you Nick, for visiting my blog.