Kees' photos

Last station on our Summer trip to Italy was Sabbioneta, a small Renaissance town I liked very much. I took lots of pictures there, none as odd as the one above.

Companion piece to this one . Sherry wore one of my jackets. I’m sorry to say that it was severely damaged in my scooter accident. It goes without saying, that the volume on the table isn’t the whole Latin lexicon: it only contains part of the letter “I”.

This fair lady at Neuburg castle would perhaps have been much fairer when she’d have preserved her nose (but I doubt it).

Part of a local fountain.

A quick stop at San Benedetto Po, east of Mantua, where the Abbey harbored an interesting exhibition I didn’t see. I was sitting outside the church, and watched over a row of philosophers. They felt uncomfortable.

Right behind the Virgil statue featured elsewhere, there’s a lot of water. The marshes which once used to threaten Mantua, and made it an unhealthy place, were bridled by dikes and drains many centuries ago, though the town still has a bad reputation for its gnats.

If you don’t have a room with a view, you naturally try to find another solution.

A Vélo Solex in full action. They did 25km/h, at most, and hardly used any gas. I’m a child of my time, and rarely defending the past, but I would argue it has sometimes something to recommend itself...

Between two cycling races, there was a motorized fun race among vintage Solexes. The Vélo Solex used to be popular in the Netherlands until helmets became obligatory in the early 80ies. I can’t exactly define what it is, but I couldn’t help thinking: “Is this Oswestry, or what?”

In my hometown, there was a cycle competition going on, when we were there this summer. I couldn’t care less. However, the cyclists passed right in front of my mother’s house, and I was able to practice “following moving objects with the camera so as to suggest movement”. That procedure is very much a “hit-or-miss” thing, but it was fun to do.

Some incredulous people still aren’t convinced, it seems, of Virgil’s supernatural powers. Well, let me show you another instance. Most of the time we spent in Mantua, the weather was hot, and the sky cloudless. One of those days, I went to see the poet, who was worriedly surveying his barren park, then suddenly raised his right hand, and right in front of him streams of cool water gushed from the earth, drenching the dust. I have witnessed this myself, and you wouldn’t call me a liar, would you?

Virgil was a powerful poet, I always knew that, but the way he called forth the sunlight on a cloudy day really impressed me...

A door of Neuburg Castle.

A long wait on a park bench near the Palazzo Te, Mantua. While I tried not to look into the camera, Robbie tried to do exactly the opposite. It would have been nice if we had succeeded both.

In front of the Palazzo Te, there’s a large park, in a corner of which this old railway locomotive stood rotting. I couldn’t find out anything about it, but the fence around it suggested it was a monument of sorts; if true, it was a monument ill taken care for. Bad for the engine, good for the photographer.

In front of the Palazzo Te, there’s a large park, in a corner of which this old railway locomotive stood rotting. I couldn’t find out anything about it, but the fence around it suggested it was a monument of sorts; if true, it was a monument ill taken care for. Bad for the engine, good for the photographer.

Yes, we’ve left behind lots of waste...

Have a cup of thea? You can’t escape the feeling that you’re not exactly visiting a metropolis.