On Aug. 26, 2021, my day started at 4 AM to catch a 7 AM flight out of LAX. It was already a hectic week since I had worked many late hours writing simulation code, getting my research presentable for the conference, and stressing about COVID rules for international travel.

I was flying Air Canada to Rome with a 3 hr layover in Montreal. During the flight, I warmed up my X-T3 with these few shots out the 737 MAX8 window.

There’s a “high speed” train that takes you from FCO Airport to Roma Termini. It’s 30 minutes, but as you approach the city, the train slows to a crawl. Still better than no train (looking at you LA…).

Upon arrival, I exited Roma Termini and found myself in a whole different world of Italian neoclassical architecture. The following photographs hopefully give a good feeling of what it was like there.

In particular, I love the faded pastel colors see everywhere in Rome.

and now, I present to you:

Some of my favorite shots…

…shown in chronological order of when they were taken. Some are repeats of photos shown in other pages here.

[1] This is one of the side doors to the Pantheon. I love the aged texture of the marble with built with satisfyingly asymmetric shapes. It really brings out the light blue door quite nicely.

I edited this using the Bleach Bypass film simulation in Lightroom. Bleach bypass is a darkroom technique where you skip or limit the bleach during development of color film, which causes it to retain the silver. It’s great for getting high contrast + low saturation, which helps emphasize the textures further.

ƒ/2.0 | 1/300 s | 35mm | ISO160

[2] I love the asymmetry here between brick sizes, columns, textures and light. This one was minimally edited in Lightroom and used the Kodachrome 64 film recipe, which has a contrasty vintage look.

ƒ/2.8 | 1/2500 s | 50mm | ISO160

[3] I really like how the floor is so worn it almost looks like water with the light reflecting off of it. The morning sunlight hitting the columns contrast heavily with the deep shadows afforded by the arches and dramatically complement a pair of breakfast-goers.

I edited this one with the Astia film simulation to further soften the shimmery floor and bring out the saturation from the sunrays of daybreak.

ƒ/2.0 | 1/7500 s | 35mm | ISO200

[4] This is nearly straight out of camera using an enhanced Velvia film simulation recipe. The high saturation brings out the dichotomy of the orange and blues, which emphasizes the textures of a very historic piece of architecture.

ƒ/2.0 | 1/3500 s | 35mm | ISO160

[5] Sometimes, I just enjoy when an Italian seagull defys the orders of the great Roman Emperor Trajan.

Shot using the Kodachrome 64 film simulation recipe.

ƒ/2.0 | 1/8000 s | 35mm | ISO160

[6] I took this image of the Altare della Patria (Altar of the Fatherland, a WWI memorial) well before sunrise, so it was a nice waiting game for trucks/buses to come by so I could get light trails high enough in the image.

Astia was used in editing to soften and saturate the lights.

ƒ/8.0 | 4.5 s | 20mm | ISO160

[7] I actually waited on this overlook of the Roman Forum for about an hour to get this shot. During that period, I was actually quite frustrated and disappointed for two reasons: 1) there was scaffolding directly in front of me that had ugly poles sticking up, thereby limited the choice of framing and 2) the lighting just wasn’t what I imagined, and so all of the shots I took in that first hour before dawn were garbage. However, I stayed there out of frustration to try to get something to work out and, lo and behold, about 30 minutes after sunrise, the sun peaked above the horizon perfectly in between the columns! It was an annoying waiting game, but well worth it in the end, both for the photo and the lessons learned.

This photograph is actually an HDR composite of 3 bracketed images with 1 stop of EV compensation in between each shot. I then edited with Velvia to bring out the warmth of the sunrays and spent quite a bit of effort cleaning up the bottom of the image from the ugly construction/scaffolding.

ƒ/8.0 | 1/55 s + 1/110 s + 1/220 s | 14.5mm | ISO160

[8] One of the things I challenged myself to do was to try to capture more people. It’s definitely out of my comfort zone, but I’m generally pleased with the compositions I got. Unlike the next photo, this one was taken on a whim while I was crossing the street, so I think I was very lucky with this composition. This lady’s teal dress has such a nice pop compared to the more orange/pink hues of the background.

This was edited using my favorite film simulation: Classic Neg. The “retro” look is based off of the Fujicolor Superia 100 film from the 1980s and I think it looks so good here with the old-style architecture.

ƒ/2.0 | 1/8000 s | 35mm | ISO160

[9] For this shot, I really liked the gap in between the metal barriers and the clean brushed texture of the wall. The exposed plumbing/electrical box with a book (perhaps a bible?) on top also give this image a very quirky feel. I think I camped out here waiting for the right person to walk by for 10-15 minutes or so? I’m glad this man walked by, since he clearly has a lot of character: he’s dressed well and has a very angular face that is quite photogenic when silhouetted.

This was also straight out of camera, using a custom Color Negative 400 film recipe built for dark and contrasty scenes. It was inspired by Fujicolor Superia film, but ends up looking more like Kodak Colorplus 400, which is why it’s named Color Negative 400.

ƒ/2.0 | 1/2900 s | 35mm | ISO160

[10] In the outskirts of Rome, I found this really cool building that really looked unlike the typical Roman architecture. It was clearly showing signs of age, but with the sun perfectly illuminating the right face, I got some gorgeous blue-tinged shadows on the left to complement the contrasty composition.

There was no color profile applied to this one during editing.

ƒ/5.6 | 1/3000 s | 35mm | ISO160

Gelato

Anybody who knows me knows that I have an obsession with gelato that extends beyond merely consumption. In 8 days, I had gelato roughly 15 times. Here’s my top 3 from my time in Rome.

Gelateria dell'Angeletto

I’ve always known that most gelaterias in Rome proper are pretty mediocre, but I was happy to find decently good quality gelato pretty much a block away from where my conference was held. Mouth feel was ok, structure was not among the best, but the sorbets had very strong flavor. For something in a touristy spot, this was a winner purely out of convenience.

Gelateria La Romana

Wow, this was a surprising pick. I had heard good things about Gelateria La Romana, but I was not expecting it to be my favorite among all the gelato I tried in Rome. The flavors here were quite custardy which led to a delightfully chewy gelato. I feel like they used more a lot more egg yolk your average gelateria, which helped them achieve a suprisingly good consistency without using too much sugar. I’m a fan.

Gelateria Il Cannolo Siciliano

I had sought this out based on the fact that this was the work of Eugenio Morrone, the 2020 Gelato World Champion. It was very good, but (in my opinion) it was bested by Gelateria La Romana (above). I think this is the epitome of classical Tuscan gelato, but in my opinion, the gelato here was a bit too sweet. The texture was great, probably more refined than Gelateria La Romana since it was less rich and less chewy. I brought my advisor here, and he loved it so much he went back for a second round!!! That certainly made my day :D