Andreas Manessinger

7257 - Piacenza XVI

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

One more view, then we go in again.

7256 - Piacenza XV

Wed, 02 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Out of a whim, I returned to San Francesco for a few more images. Glad I did. 😁

7255 - Piacenza XIV

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Under those arcades. The building is Piacenza’s ancient town hall, aptly named Palazzo Gotico.

7254 - Piacenza XIII

Mon, 31 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This image was a not even half-hearted effort. I was discouraged by the light, and I didn’t even try to get a good composition. The out-of-camera image was exposed for the sky and the perspective was all off. Everything you see here is a product of post-processing. Lightroom only, not even DxO. No AI involved 😁

7253 - Piacenza XII

Sun, 30 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This looks like a part of a former cloister. Franciscan monasteries always have cloisters - unless they have not. So much has been lost over the centuries.

7252 - Piacenza XI

Sat, 29 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Stained-glass windows are not easy to process. I’m pretty happy with this single exposure.

7251 - Piacenza X

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The look of this image is quite different. This happens when images taken at the same place and time are processed years apart 😁

7250 - Piacenza IX

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Not overly ornamental, but still a nice vault.

7249 - Piacenza VIII

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

That’s what franciscan churches are supposed to look like.

7248 - Piacenza VII

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Not bad. This is a side altar. Not typically franciscan 😁

7247 - Piacenza VI

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

San Francesco. Restoration work on the outside. Let’s hope for the interior.

7246 - Piacenza V

Sun, 23 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The same place, closer now.

7245 - Piacenza IV

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

We arrived on September 2, 2021. This is already after the main tourist season, and in lesser known cities like Piacenza, it helps a lot.

7244 - Piacenza III

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Italy. There’s always this charming mix of elegance and neglect.

7243 - Piacenza II

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

And then the fun begins. We were right in the center of Piacenza, ready for the first exploration.

7242 - Piacenza I

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Vacations really start with arriving, and this frequently means the garage of your hotel.

7241 - Eastern Sundown in Villach

Tue, 18 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I probably liked this image’s colors a bit too much and may have applied more saturation than actually was there. But then, I remember having been impressed 😁

7240 - 61

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I didn’t like the image in color, but it’s nice in black and white 😁

7239 - Nötsch

Sun, 16 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A week later I was in Nötsch, a village near Villach. I was not very inspired, this was the only usable image 😁

7238 - Leaving Rab IV

Sat, 15 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

2021 was the last year we were there. The hotel we used to stay in has become more expensive, more like every other four-star hotel everywhere. All changes of the last years were for the worse. The nail in the coffin was, that entering the lawn was forbidden in that final year. I had loved it in the shadow of the pine trees on the lawn by the pools. Being forced to be on a big, hot concrete terrace was enough.

Another hotel? Well, in Rab and Croatia in general, most four- or five-star hotels belong to the same chain. They were the successor to the single hotel chain in communist times. Around maybe 2015, they were part of TUI for a few years, and that’s when the downturn began. If you are in one of those hotels anywhere, and if you don’t look out of the window, you can’t tell what country you’re in.

I won’t give up on Croatia, but I guess I will need to spend at least two weeks there. Of the Kvarner islands, easily reachable from Vienna and dear to my sentimental heart, Rab is already the optimum, and of Rab, Suha Punta is the part I like most. As a child, I was in Lopar, that’s on the more rocky north-eastern side. Today the unrelenting sun there would kill me.

Let’s see. Maybe next year.

7237 - Leaving Rab III

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On the ferry. I always try for a few shots there. It all takes less than 15 minutes, and the obvious pictures I have all taken. Here are some stairs.

7236 - Leaving Rab II

Thu, 13 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The same ferry, and we are leaving now.

7235 - Leaving Rab I

Wed, 12 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Susi and I began returning to Rab in 2013, always arriving Sunday morning and leaving Friday morning. We couldn’t stay longer because of private responsibilities. While on the ferry to the island, I already sensed the feeling of taking it the other way: only so few short days later.

7234 - Approaching Rab

Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Rab, the most beautiful of the Kvarner islands. In my early youth, I spent four sweet vacations there. This is not really Rab in the picture, at least none of the islands that are lit by the early morning sun. I suppose it’s Krk to the right and Goli Otok, the former prison island, at the center. In the shadowy background to the left, that’s Rab.

Hmm … maybe, if I think of it, the sunlit island in the middle is not only Goli Otok, but a sunlit part of Rab’s mountain range behind it as well.

7233 - University of Vienna

Mon, 10 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The main building on Ringstraße. What you see is the southern side of the building, facing Rathauspark.

7232 - Above the Underground

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Above the underground station where we finally entered line U2.

7231 - Venus

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Body positivity, hewn in stone.

7230 - The Tower III

Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This time with sky. It’s not that big after all.

7229 - The Tower II

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The same tower behind green filigree.

7228 - The Tower I

Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I think this tower is from the 1980s, probably even the 1990s.